COVID-19 cases hit nearly 3,500 daily

MANILA, Philippines — With the steady increase in COVID-19 cases nationwide now averaging nearly 3,500 daily, the hospital bed utilization rate has also risen to almost 30 percent.

New detected cases averaged 3,443 last week, 24 percent higher than the previous week’s 2,487 cases, the Department of Health (DOH) reported on Monday.

Of the 24,100 new cases confirmed by laboratory tests last week, 76 were severe and critical while the rest were either asymptomatic, mild or moderate.

On the other hand, 44 more deaths were belatedly reported by the DOH with these occurring between August 2021 and June this year.

Meanwhile, the latest occupancy rate of COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) beds increased to 23.3 percent from 21.7 percent last week. The DOH said that 601 out of 2,583 ICU beds allotted for COVID-19 patients were occupied.

The utilization rate for non-ICU beds also went up to 29.5 percent from 26 percent last week. Based on DOH data, 6,505 out of 22,051 beds for COVID-19 patients were in use.

Low risk

The department, however, considers bed utilization rates below 50 percent as “low risk.”

As of July 31, there were 744 admitted COVID-19 patients in severe or critical condition, comprising around 9 percent of total COVID-19 admissions.

The DOH said that while 71.7 million individuals had already been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the target was to fully vaccinate at least 78.1 million individuals.

However, only 16.2 million fully vaccinated individuals have so far availed themselves of booster shots, which authorities have been recommending to counter waning vaccine efficacy.

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