PH reports 433 new COVID-19 infections on Christmas Day

COVID-19 test_positive. STOCK PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) reported Saturday the infection of 433 more people – the highest daily case count since December 17, bringing the COVID-19 tally in the country to 2,838,381.

The DOH explained that 404 or 93 percent of the 433 new COVID-19 cases reported on Christmas Day were found positive for the coronavirus within the past 14 days or from December 12-25.

Meanwhile, of the overall count, 9,376 or 0.3 percent remain sick of the respiratory disease although 41.5 percent of them are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.

Specifically, the DOH said 458 of the active cases are asymptomatic while 3,430 patients have mild symptoms, 3,337 have moderate symptoms, 1,777 have severe symptoms, and 374 are labeled as critical cases.

READ: DOH records 582 new COVID-19 cases

Also, the health agency reported that the total number of patients who survived COVID-19 stood at 2,777,818 on Saturday after 369 more recovered from the illness. This is 97.9 percent of the 2,838,381 confirmed infections nationwide.

The DOH then said that 137 patients did not make it, driving the death toll to 51,187. Of the latest death count, 14 patients passed away in December; 26 died in November; 45, in October; 32, in September; 11, in August; five, in July; three, in June; and one, in April.

The delay in the tallying of fatalities was due to the late encoding of death information to COVIDKaya, the platform which stores data of all coronavirus cases, according to the government.

“This issue is currently being coordinated with the Epidemiology and Surveillance Units to ensure information is up to date,” the DOH noted.

KGA