PH logs 2,730 new cases of COVID-19; lowest thus far this year

FILE PHOTO: Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (red) infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow), also known as novel coronavirus, isolated from a patient sample. Image captured at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH/Handout via REUTERS.

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday recorded 2,730 new cases of COVID-19, the new lowest number since the year began, along with 7,456 recoveries.

This was registered, amid a relatively low number of tests at only 28,620 — lower than Sunday’s 31,403.

It should be noted that tests conducted in February have considerably been lower compared to the number of tests conducted in January, or during the height of the COVID-19 surge caused by the Omicron variant of concern.

DOH, meanwhile, only recorded a 10.7 percent positivity rate, which also makes it the lowest this year, only slightly higher than Dec. 31, 2021’s 10.3 percent.

Based on the DOH’s report, 96 percent or 2,627 of the new infections were logged within the last 14 days with NCR listed as the top region posting the highest number of new cases at 467 new cases (18 percent) in the recent two weeks, followed by Region 4-A with 330 (13 percent) and Region 7 with 283 (11 percent).

With this, total confirmed infections are now at 3,639,942 and recoveries at 3,508,239.

With the higher number of recoveries, active cases have reduced further to 76,609, of which 93.8 percent currently suffer mild or asymptomatic cases, specifically, 69,754 individuals suffer mild cases, 2,310 are asymptomatic, 2,970 moderate, 1,443 severe, and 312 critical.

The DOH said it also recorded the deaths of 164 people increasing the total COVID-19 death count to 55,094.

The health agency likewise said that 68 duplicates were removed from the total case count, 52 of which were recoveries.

Moreover, the DOH said that 121 previously tagged as recoveries cases were reclassified as deaths after final validation.