COVID-19 positivity rate in PH now at 2.6%; 421 new cases logged

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 — Additional 421 COVID-19 cases and 248 recoveries were reported by the Department of Health (DOH) Tuesday, marking the fifth consecutive day the DOH recorded more infections than recoveries after the number of daily reported infections dipped below 1,000.

The positivity rate was also at its highest since Nov. 25 at 2.6 percent out of 18,122 tests conducted. This rate comes amid a relatively low testing rate after 18 laboratories in total were not able to submit their data to the DOH’s COVID-19 Document Repository System (CDRS).

With this, active infections have now slightly increased to 9,750 from Monday’s 9,579.

Meanwhile, according to the DOH, 97 percent or 410 of the 421 cases recorded today occurred within the recent 14 days, with the National Capital Region listed as the top region with 170 cases or 41 percent in the recent two weeks; followed by Region 4-A with 55 or 13 percent; and Region 3 with 39 or 10 percent.

These numbers then bring the total confirmed cases to 2,839,111, while recoveries to 2,778,148.

Of the active cases, the DOH said 43.6 percent are mild or asymptomatic cases, specifically, 3,766 individuals suffer mild cases, 489 are asymptomatic, 3,343 are moderate, 1,778 are severe, and 374 are critical.

The DOH also recorded only 2 new deaths, raising the country’s death toll to 51,213.

Meanwhile, the DOH said two of 18 laboratories were not operational when the tests were conducted on Dec. 26. The other 16 laboratories were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System, the DOH said.

“Based on data in the last 14 days, the 18 labs contribute, on average, 2.9% of samples tested and 2.4% of positive individuals,” the DOH said.

The health agency likewise said that 2 duplicates were removed from the total case count.

The DOH also said that it removed from the total case count the 100 cases that were found to have tested negative for COVID-19.

“These 100 are recoveries,” it noted.

Moreover, the DOH said 2 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

/MUF