UNPRECEDENTED Workers are finding themselves busier than ever at New Life Crematorium in Biñan City in Laguna, where families who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 have to wait for at least two days to secure a slot. —RICHARD A. REYES (File Photo)
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) confirmed on Friday that 129 more have died because of COVID-19 complications, bringing the country’s current death toll to 51,871.
According to the DOH, this is 1.78 percent out of the 2.9 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country.
However, the DOH said only eight of the 129 deaths occurred on January; 34 were from December 2021; 14 on November; 26 on October; 32 on September; 10 in August; four in July, and one in April.
The late reporting was due to the late encoding of information on deaths, according to the DOH. The health agency said this issue is now currently being coordinated with the Epidemiology and Surveillance Units to ensure that information is up to date.
Meanwhile, of the total confirmed cases, 2.7 million have already recovered and 77,369 remain active. Of the active cases, 2,438 are asymptomatic, 70,321 are mild, 2,837 are moderate, 1,461 are severe, and 312 are critical.
There were 21,819 new COVID-19 cases reported on Friday. This is the highest since September 18 when the country reported 23,134 additional coronavirus infections.
The country has so far reported 43 cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19, which the DOH said could be driving the increase in cases.