PH posts 5,434 new COVID-19 cases; 611 recoveries

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) reported on Tuesday 5,434 additional COVID-19 cases in the country. It also reported the recovery of 611 patients and the death of 18 others.

According to the DOH’s latest case bulletin, the new COVID-19 infections pushed the country’s overall case count to 2,861,119. Of this, 29,809, or one percent, are active cases while 2,779,706, or 97.2 percent, are recovered cases. The death toll, meanwhile, stood at 51,604 as of Tuesday.

The DOH explained that of the 5,434 reported new cases on Tuesday, 99 percent or 5,395 occurred between December 22 and January 4.

“The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were NCR (3,826 or 71%), Region 4-A (864 or 16%), and Region 3 (333 or 6%),” it added.

On death cases, the health agency said two of the 18 recently recorded occurred this month while eight occurred in December 2021, two in November 2021, three in October 2021, one in August 2021, and two in July 2021.

“This issue is currently being coordinated with the Epidemiology and Surveillance Units to ensure information is up to date,” the DOH said regarding late reporting on the death of COVID-19 patients.

“[Thirteen] duplicates were removed from the total case count. These 13 are recoveries,” it added.

Further, the DOH noted that 121 cases were found to have tested negative and have been removed from the total case count.

“Of these, 119 are recoveries,” it said.

“Moreover, 14 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation,” the DOH added.

The DOH, at the same time, noted that 16 laboratories were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System (CDRS).

“Based on data in the last 14 days, the 16 labs contribute, on average, 2.1% of samples tested and 1.8% of positive individuals,” it said.

KGA