MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday reported 39,004 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the number of active cases in the country to 280,813.
This is the fifth time that the country has recorded a record-number of daily cases in just a month, slightly beating the Friday’s record of 37,207.
Based on the DOH’s report, 98 percent or 38,271 of the new infections were recorded within the last 14 days. It showed that Metro Manila is once again the top region to post the highest number of new cases at 18,142 (47 percent) in the recent two weeks, followed by Region 4-A with 9,172 (24 percent) and Region 3 with 3,325 (9 percent).
This brings the total confirmed cases at 3,168,379
Meanwhile, the positivity rate is at 47.1 percent out of the 78,774 tests conducted on Jan. 13.
Of the active cases, the DOH said 98.3 percent are mild or asymptomatic, specifically 267,185 individuals with mild cases; 8,928 are asymptomatic; 2,925 are moderate; 1,472 are severe; and 303 are critical.
Meanwhile, the DOH said it also recorded the recovery of 23,613 patients, bringing the total number of recoveries to 2,834,708, as well as the deaths of 43 patients, bringing the country’s total death toll at 52,853.
Health care utilization rate nationwide also continues to increase based on the DOH’s data. Now in use nationwide are 48 percent of ICU beds, 48 percent of isolation beds, 51 percent of ward beds, and 22 percent of ventilators.
In Metro Manila, occupied ICU beds are now at 55 percent, isolation beds at 52 percent, ward beds at 69 percent and 26 percent of ventilators.