6,739 new COVID-19 infections bring PH active cases to 56,709

A health worker in Ilocos Norte extracts a swab sample from a resident amid the rising COVID-19 cases there. (Photo courtesy of Ilocos Norte provincial government)

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) reported 6,739 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday, bringing the total number of active cases in the country to 56,709.

In its May 15 bulletin, the DOH said there are now 1,138,187 total confirmed cases of the disease in the country—of which 6,739 (5 percent of the total cases) remain active.

The DOH likewise reported 8,952 new recoveries and 93 new deaths. The total number of COVID-19 recoveries and deaths are now 1,062,427 and 19,051, respectively.

Of the active cases, the DOH said 93.4 percent are mild; 2.2 percent are asymptomatic; 1.9 percent are severe; 1.4 percent are critical, and 1.17 percent are moderate.

The health department said that 19 duplicates were also removed from the total case count while 36 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

All laboratories were operational on May 13, 2021, while nine laboratories were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System, the DOH said.

/MUF