COVID-19 infection of 22,958 more boosts PH’s tally to nearly 3.3 million

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ total COVID-19 case count is approaching 3,3 million as the Department of Health (DOH) reported Wednesday the infection of 22,958 more people in the country.

The nationwide COVID-19 tally since the pandemic hit in 2020 stood at 3,293,625, based on the latest DOH data. Included in this figure, are 270,728 active cases which are mostly (98.2 percent) patients who either have mild symptoms or no symptoms (asymptomatic).

According to the health agency, 94 percent of the 22,958 new cases reported Wednesday occurred within the recent 14 days or from January 6-19.

The top regions with the most number of new infections in the last two weeks are Metro Manila (7,861 or 36%), Region 4-A (4,647 or 21%), and Region 3 (2,049 or 9%), it added.

At the same time, the DOH said an additional 36,611 patients were able to survive COVID-19 although 82 others have died of the disease. To date, the Philippines recorded 2,969,853 recovered patients and 53,044 fatalities.

Further, on Wednesday, the DOH said the country’s current positivity rate is at 43.5 percent after 22,958 people were found positive for the virus from among the 62,531 who underwent the COVID-19 test on Monday, January 17.

The World Health Organization, however, had set at 5 percent the ideal positivity rate to indicate that the transmission of the coronavirus is under control.

Meanwhile, the DOH said all laboratories were operational on January 17 but six 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 health agency said the six laboratories contribute, on average, 1.5 percent of samples tested and 1.9 percent of positive individuals.

It likewise said it removed 91 duplicates – of these, 64 are recoveries – from the total COVID-19 case count. It also said 32 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

KGA