21,819 new COVID-19 infections propel PH’s active cases to 77,369

MANILA, Philippines —  The Department of Health (DOH) reported on Friday the infection of 21,819 more people, the highest single-day increase since September 18 last year.

In its latest case bulletin, the DOH said it recorded a 40 percent positivity rate from the 70,049 tests conducted.

The fresh infections pushed the country’s tally to over 2.9 million, of which 77,369 are active cases. The DOH also reported the recovery of 973 patients and the death of 129 others.

The health agency also noted that 21,656 or 99 percent of the new cases reported on Friday occurred within the past two weeks.

“The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were NCR (13,634 or 63%), Region 4-A (4,129 or 19%), and Region 3 (2,084 or 10%),” it said.

READ: PH logs 2nd highest daily COVID-19 tally at 23,134 cases

Meanwhile, eight of the 129 additional deaths occurred this month; 34 cases in December; 14 in November; 26 in October; 32 in September; 10 in August; four in July; and one in April last year.

The DOH explained the delay in the reporting of some death cases was “due to late encoding of death information to COVIDKaya.”

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

Meanwhile, the DOH said it removed from the total case count  72 duplicates that include 51 recoveries and one death.

Moreover, it said 111 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

According to the DOH, 10 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 10 labs contribute, on average, 0.8% of samples tested and 1.5% of positive individuals,” it added.

KGA