PH logs 603 new COVID-19 cases; positivity rate still at 1.8 % — DOH

FILE PHOTO: Persons identified for contact tracing in connection to COVID-19 patients undergo swabbing procedures inside UP-Philippine General Hospital, Manila. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / LYN RILLON

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday reported 603 new COVID-19 cases that brought the country’s caseload to 2,834,775.

Of the total number of cases, 13,853 or 0.5 percent are tagged as “active cases” with 49.1 percent having mild or no symptoms.

The total number of recoveries meanwhile is now at 2,771,536 or 97.8 percent of the cases after 1,047 cases were reported.

There are also 156 new reported deaths to bring the death toll to 49,386.

The current positivity rate remains at 1.8 percent. The 1.8 positivity rate was maintained for the past three days and is well within the World Health Organization’s ideal positivity rate of 5 percent.

Meanwhile, six duplicates — all recoveries — were removed from the total case tally, according to the DOH. There are also 116 cases that were found to be negative and were removed from the case count.

A total of 115 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation, the DOH said.

Meanwhile, global COVID-19 infection now stands at 265.3 million including 5.2 million deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Case Tracker.

/MUF