Only 203 new COVID-19 cases after 41 labs fail to submit data — DOH

FILE PHOTO: Persons identified for contact tracing in connection to COVID-19 patients undergo swabbing procedures inside UP-Philippine General Hospital, Manila. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / LYN RILLON

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) reported only 203 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday after some testing laboratories suspended operations and failed to submit data due to Typhoon Odette.

With the new infections, 395 more recoveries, and 64 additional deaths, the DOH said the country’s current active cases are now at 9,729.

“The low case report is due to the suspension of the operations of 4 labs on December 17, 2021, and failure to submit data from 41 labs to the COVID-19 Document Repository System because of Typhoon Odette. Based on data in the last 14 days, the 45 contribute, on average, 15.4% of samples tested and 1.8% of positive individuals,” the DOH said.

Of the active cases, 42.9 percent are either mild or asymptomatic. In numbers, 485 patients are currently asymptomatic, 3,685 have mild symptoms, 3,379 have moderate infections, 1,800 are tagged severe cases, and 380 are under critical status.

Overall, the Philippines has recorded 2,837,577 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of this number, 2,777,109 have recovered but 50,739 ended in deaths.

Meanwhile, the positivity rate was at 0.8 percent out of 28,823 individuals who got tested for coronavirus on Friday.

On hospitalization, 22 percent of intensive care unit beds, 23 percent of isolation beds, and 11 percent of ward beds and ventilators are currently being used.

The DOH removed from the total case count two duplicates and 179 cases that were found to have tested negative and reclassified 62 recoveries as deaths after final validation.

/MUF