47 new COVID-related deaths raise PH’s tally to 53,519

FILE A relative wails over the death of his loved one while being treated in the parking lot of Ospital ng Binan in Laguna province. RICHARD A. REYES / INQUIRER

MANILA, Philippines — An additional 47 patients have succumbed to COVID-19, which raised the country’s death toll to 53,519, the Department of Health (DOH) reported Monday.

In its daily case bulletin, DOH said 91% or 43 of the deaths occurred in January.

The rest were backlogs from last year with three deaths in October and one in September.

These delays, DOH explained, are still due to the late encoding of death information to DOH’s COVIDKaya, but the health department said this is already being coordinated with the Epidemiology and Surveillance Units “to ensure information is up to date.”

The current death toll accounts for 1.55% of the total 3,442,056 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country.

Of the total confirmed cases, 262,997 are currently active, while 3,125,540 have already recovered.

Health care utilization rate nationwide based on DOH’s data is at 51% of ICU beds, 52% of isolation beds, 52% of ward beds, and 25% of ventilators are currently in use.

Meanwhile, in Metro Manila, 47% of ICU beds are currently in use, 46% in isolation beds, 50% in ward beds and 27% in ventilators.

EDV