Health workers administer swab tests on patients during the Office of the Vice President’s Swab Cab event. Image from Facebook / Vice President Leni Robredo
MANILA, Philippines — The number of active asymptomatic COVID-19 cases in the rose on Friday and passed the 8,300 mark, the Department of Health (DOH) reported.
According to the DOH’s health bulletin dated January 14, there are now 8,325 active asymptomatic cases in the country, an increase from the 7,332 active asymptomatic infections recorded on January 13.
This came after the Philippines recorded 37,207 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the highest number of new infections in a single day since the coronavirus pandemic started.
The DOH said there are currently 265,509 active COVID-19 cases in the country—most of which are mild at 252,502 and asymptomatic at 8,325 Meanwhile, 2,913 of the active cases are moderate, 1,469 are severe, and 300 are critical.
The DOH earlier updated its guidelines on quarantine and isolation periods for asymptomatic cases.
For an asymptomatic fully vaccinated person, isolation time will be cut to seven days, starting from when they received a positive test result, while it will still be 10 days for an infected partially immunized or an unvaccinated person who shows no symptoms.
A coronavirus-positive close contact who is asymptomatic meanwhile, will also no longer need to undergo a test, the DOH said.