On Monday, the DOH said the logged new cases translate to an average of 419 daily fresh infections during the period – lower than the numbers registered the previous week or in the first week of January 2023.
READ: COVID-19 hits 3,127 more in PH during first week of 2023
It also noted that only one, or 0.04 percent, of the 2,934 new cases was tagged as severe or critical. As of January 15, the active number of severe or critical cases stood at 567.
However, the DOH said 116 deaths were added to the country’s COVID-19 death toll. Based on its COVID-19 tracker, 65,590 coronavirus patients have died in the country since the pandemic hit in 2020.
Of the 116, it pointed out, 14 died in the past two weeks, while the rest were backlogs recorded as early as December 2020 but only validated recently.
As for the utilization of hospital beds by COVID-19 patients, the DOH reported that the rate decreased from 21.6 percent to 20.0 percent for non-ICU beds and 18.1 percent to 17.2 for ICU beds.
On the progress in vaccination against the coronavirus, the health agency said the country has 73,803,831 (94.50 percent of target population) fully-vaccinated people as of January 15, including 12,724 newly vaccinated individuals.
Meanwhile, 21,241,707 people have already been boosted nationwide, as 47,563 more received their booster doses last week.
The DOH earlier warned the public that daily infections might reach around 700 by February 15, if minimum public health standards continue to ease further or when more variants of COVID-19 enter the country.
279 fresh infections recorded Monday
Meanwhile, 279 additional infections of COVID-19 were recorded by the DOH on Monday, Jan. 16, a day after the one-week period reflected in its latest weekly data.
These new infections are lower than the daily average recorded from Jan. 9 to 15, which was at 419.
With this, the total COVID-19 caseload in the country is now at 4,070,287, with 3,992,554 recoveries and 65,590 deaths. Active cases, on the other hand, are at 12,143.
Metro Manila continues to lead the list of regions with the most number of cases in the past two weeks with 1,761, followed by Calabarzon with 895, and Central Luzon with 458.
In terms of individual areas, Quezon City leads with 391, followed by Cavite with 269 and Rizal with 243.
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