PH logs 28,707 new COVID-19 cases; positivity rate at 44 percent

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday reported 28,707 new cases of COVID-19, the highest tally of daily cases recorded since the pandemic started, raising active cases further to 128,114.

This record number beat highest tallied cases, which was reported the day before, Jan. 8, at 26,458.

Positivity rate has now also increased to 44 percent of the 77,479 tests conducted. This is more than double of last week’s 19.60 percent, and much higher than the World Health Organization’s threshold of 5 percent which indicated controlled transmission of the SARS-CoV-2.

Of the new cases, the DOH said 99 percent or 28,512 of the total cases recorded occurred within the recent 14 days. The National Capital Region was again listed as the top region with 16,803 cases or 59 percent in the recent two weeks; followed by Region 4-A with 5,821 or 20 percent; and Region 3 with 2,841 or 10 percent.

The DOH also reported 2,579 new recoveries. With this, confirmed cases now total 2,965,447, while recoveries to 2,785,183.

Of the active cases, DOH said 96.4 percent suffer mild or asymptomatic case; specifically, 119,276 individuals suffer mild cases, 4,213 are asymptomatic, 2,851 have moderate cases, 1,465 are severe, and 309 are critical.

The DOH also recorded 15 new deaths, increasing the death toll to 52,150.

These numbers were registered while 14 labs were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System on the tests conducted on Jan. 7, said the DOH.

“Based on data in the last 14 days, the 14 labs contribute, on average, 5.7% of samples tested and 5.1% of positive individuals,” the DOH said.

The health agency likewise said that 135 duplicates were removed from the total case count, 116 of which were recoveries.

Moreover, the DOH said that 3 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

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