The daily positivity rate or rate of people who tested positive stood at 13% out of 48,824 tests conducted as of May 20. The recommended rate is below 5% according to the World Health Organization, as higher rates may mean high transmission and more undetected cases.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 22) — The country’s COVID-19 death toll moved closer to 20,000 after 183 more people lost their lives to the disease, the Department of Health said Saturday.
It’s the fifth day in a row this week that the country logged more than 100 deaths in a day, pushing the total number of fatalities to 19,946 – or 1.69% of the case tally.
Total cases rose to 1,178,217 with 6,831 more infections. Of this total, 4.6% or 54,326 are active or currently sick with 93.6% experiencing mild symptoms, 1.9% without symptoms, 1.9% in severe state, 1.4% in critical condition, and 1.26% moderate.
The DOH added that 7,981 more people also recovered, bringing the number of survivors to 1,103,945 – or 93.7% of the COVID-19 count.
The agency said 131 of the newly reported deaths were previously tagged as recoveries. It also removed 17 duplicates, including 14 survivors.
The tally excludes data from three laboratories that failed to submit their reports on time. These three have contributed an average of 0.7% of samples tested and 0.9% positive individuals in the past 14 days, the DOH said.
Among Filipinos abroad, the Department of Foreign Affairs reported a lone new case, lifting the total infected to 18,659. The survivor tally and the death toll remained at 11,400 and 1,168, respectively, with 6,091 people still undergoing treatment.
