Active COVID-19 cases dip below 40,000

The Philippines’ active COVID-19 cases fell to 39,808 as the Department of Health (DOH) reported on Sunday the “mass recovery” of 14,941 patients with mild or no symptoms.

The DOH also logged 2,379 new COVID-19 cases, which brought to 356,618 the total number of people in the country who were infected with the coronavirus since the pandemic broke out in January.

The death toll rose to 6,652 due to the belated tallying of 50 cases, including 11 patients who were previously tagged as recovered.

Based on the DOH’s new system of ranking by city or province, Quezon City recorded the most number of the new cases with 172, while Caloocan City was fourth with 117 of the new cases.

Top region

The adjoining provinces of Rizal recorded 147 cases, Bulacan with 136 and Cavite with 101.

In terms of region, Metro Manila remained the top region with the most new cases over the past two weeks with 444, or 28 percent of the total cases, Calabarzon with 317 cases, or 20 percent, and Central Luzon with 181 cases, or 11 percent.

Six out of 10 of the 2,379 new COVID-19 patients tested positive over the last two weeks, while the rest tested positive earlier but their result was only recorded on Sunday.

Of the 39,808 active cases, 94 percent are reported to have mild or no symptoms, while the rest are in severe or critical condition in hospital.

The DOH began implementing in July time-based “mass recovery adjustment” where mild and asymptomatic COVID-19 patients are declared recovered after 14 days of quarantine.

With the reported mass recovery of 14,941 patients based on DOH’s fortnightly adjustment, a total 310,158 patients have recovered from the coronavirus disease.

Meanwhile, of the 50 new deaths, the DOH said 18 occurred in October, 14 in September, eight in August, six in July, and four as far back as in June.

The DOH said 31 of those who died came from Metro Manila, seven from Central Luzon, five from Calabarzon, two from Western Visayas, two from Mimaropa, one from Ilocos region, one from Davao region and one from the Bangsamoro region.

The DOH said 14 of the 147 licensed laboratories were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Data Repository System on Saturday.