A test tube showing a positive COVID-19 finding. STOCK PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines logged 288 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the Department of Health (DOH) said, noting that the positivity rate slightly increased to 1.1 percent.
Of the fresh infections, 241 got the virus within the past 14 days. Metro Manila is still the top region with most cases.
With the new infections, the overall case count rose to 2,837,903.
Meanwhile, the death toll climbed to 50,981 with 65 additional fatalities.
Two of the reported deaths occurred within the month, six in November, 14 in October, 31 in September, four in August, one in July, three in June, three in May, and one in April.
Recovery tally is now 2,777,671 as 270 patients recuperated from the virus.
Active cases stood at 9,251 — 3,393 are moderate cases, 3,204 are mild cases, 1,797 are severe cases, 480 are asymptomatic, and 377 are critical.
The DOH said that 32,118 individuals were tested on December 21, and 1.1 percent had a positive result. On Wednesday, the positivity rate was 0.9 percent.
Two laboratories were not operational on December 21 while 11 others failed to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System.
The DOH pointed out that 169 recoveries were pulled out from the overall tally — two, of which, are duplicates while 167 turned out to be negative cases after final validation.
Also, 60 cases, previously tagged as recoveries, were reclassified as fatalities after final validation.