PH registers 8,702 new COVID cases; active cases down to 153,335

Stock photo / INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — An additional 8,702 cases of COVID-19 were recorded by the Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday, as well as 15,290 new recoveries, bringing active cases down to 153,335.

This marks the third day in a row that the Philippines logged less than 10,000 cases since the latest COVID-19 surge. It is, however, slightly higher than Wednesday’s 7,661 cases — which was the lowest since cases consistently went above 10,000 starting Jan. 5.

This is also the sixth day in a row the country marked higher daily recoveries than infections, showing a consistent decline in infections since January 21.

Based on the DOH’s report, 97 percent or 8,463 of the new infections were logged within the last 14 days. It showed Region 6 as the top region that posted the highest number of new cases at 1,039 new cases (12 percent) in the recent two weeks, followed by Region 7 with 799 (9 percent) and Region 11 with 785 (9 percent).

The positivity rate, meanwhile, is at 25.5 percent out of the 42,446 tests conducted on Feb. 1, also the lowest rate since Jan. 3 (20.70 percent).

With this, total confirmed infections now sit at 3,585,461 and recoveries at 3,377,958.

Of the 153,335 active cases, DOH said 96.8 percent currently suffer mild or asymptomatic cases, specifically, 143,493 individuals suffer mild cases, 4,923 are asymptomatic, 3,067 moderate, 1,528 severe, and 324 critical.

The DOH said it also recorded the deaths of 71 people increasing the total COVID-19 death count to 54,168.

The health agency likewise said that 539 duplicates were removed from the total case count, 207 of which were recoveries.

Moreover, the DOH said that 29 previously tagged as recoveries cases were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

EDV