PH posts 17,220 new COVID-19 cases; positivity rate at 36.9%

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines reported on Thursday 17,220 new COVID-19 cases – the highest single-day increase since September 24 – and a positivity rate of 36.9 percent.

Based on the latest bulletin of the Department of Health (DOH), the additional cases brought the country’s active infections to 56,561, which is two percent of the total 2,888,917 confirmed cases of the serious respiratory disease since the SARS-CoV-2 virus reached the country in 2020.

Of the 17,220 reported cases, 99 percent or 17,104 occurred from December 24, 2021, to January 6, 2022. The top regions with the most number of new infections in the last 14 days were Metro Manila with 11,563 cases or 68 percent of the total; Calabarzon with 3,165 or 19 percent; and Central Luzon with 1,126 cases or seven percent.

Of the active cases, 91.6 percent were either mild or asymptomatic. Specifically, 1,837 were asymptomatic, 49,988 have mild symptoms, 2,954 were moderate, 1,470 were severe, and 312 were under critical condition.

The DOH also reported Thursday the recovery of 616 patients and the death of  81 others. The total recoveries stood at 2,780,613 while the death toll reached 51,743 as of January 6.

According to DOH, the positivity rate of 36.9 percent was from tests conducted on 59,847 people on January 4.

Some 31 percent of intensive care unit (ICU) beds, 34 percent of isolation beds, 27 percent of ward beds, and 14 percent of ventilators for COVID-19 patients in the country were likewise in use, based on the latest DOH bulletin.

In Metro Manila, 43 percent of ICU beds, 42 percent of isolation beds, 50 percent of ward beds, and 18 percent of ventilators were being utilized.

Meanwhile, the DOH said it removed 48 duplicates from the total COVID-19 case count while 66 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

All testing laboratories were operational on January 4, the DOH also said. However, 11 laboratories were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System on time. These labs contributed 2.8 percent of samples tested and 4.5 percent of positive individuals on average in the last 14 days, according to DOH.

The Philippines has so far confirmed a total of 43 cases of the Omicron variant, including 29 cases reported on Thursday.

KGA