PH records 205 new COVID-19 deaths — DOH

UNPRECEDENTED Workers are finding themselves busier than ever at New Life Crematorium in Biñan City in Laguna, where families who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 have to wait for at least two days to secure a slot. —RICHARD A. REYES (file photo)

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday recorded 205 new COVID-19 deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities in the country to 46,903.

The number of deaths represents 97.6 percent of all cases.

The Philippines now has a total of 2,824,499 COVID-19 cases after 1,474 new cases were reported on Saturday.

Of the total number of cases, only 22,070 or 0.8 percent are tagged as active, but the majority of cases or 62.2 percent have mild or no symptoms.

There are 2,565 new recoveries to bring the total number of COVID-19 recoveries to 2,755,526, or 97.6 percent of all cases.

The DOH said 15 duplicates were also removed from the total case count, including 13 recoveries.

“In addition, 170 cases were found to have tested negative and have been removed from the total case count. Of these, 169 are recoveries. Moreover, 169 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation,” the DOH said.

The DOH said the current positivity rate is only at 3.2 percent, well within the World Health Organization’s ideal positivity rate of 5 percent.

Meanwhile, the global infection now stands at 256.7 million including 5.1 million deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Case Tracker.

/MUF