The positivity rate – or percentage of tested people with positive results – slightly dipped from 28.8% based on tests reported on Sept. 4 to 28.1% based on 57,180 tests reported on Sept. 5.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 7) — The country recorded 18,012 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, bringing the nationwide total to 2,121,308, the Department of Health announced.
The DOH case bulletin reported 158,637 active cases or people currently ill – which is 7.5% of the case count. It’s the fifth day in a row this week with over 150,000 active cases. At least 92% have mild symptoms, 3.4% are asymptomatic, 2.49% are in moderate condition, 1.4% are in severe condition, and 0.7% are in critical condition.
The death toll also climbed to 34,498 or 1.63% of the COVID-19 total, after 161 more people lost their lives to the disease. It’s the sixth day in a row this week that over a hundred fatalities were reported in a day.
Meanwhile, 18,945 others recovered, lifting the survivor tally to 1,928,173 or 90.9% of the total number of infections.
The DOH said it reclassified 105 survivors into fatalities after validation, and deleted 35 duplicate cases, including 28 recoveries.
The total excludes data from 13 laboratories that failed to submit their reports on time, the department added. These laboratories contributed an average of 3.6% of tested samples and 3.7% of positive individuals in the last 14 days.
The rate has been within the critical level of over 20% since August 7, which means the country has yet to ramp up its coronavirus testing efforts.
According to US nonprofit Covid Act Now, which OCTA researchers use as reference, the positivity rate should be below 3% to show there is adequate testing.
The World Health Organization set the standard positivity rate to below 5% to indicate that the infection in an area has been controlled.
Despite the high numbers, COVID-19 restrictions in Metro Manila are scheduled to ease to the most relaxed general community quarantine starting Wednesday until the end of the month. At the same time, the government will pilot test granular lockdowns in the capital region – guidelines of which have yet to be released.
On Tuesday, the government backtracked from its earlier announcement of relaxing quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila. Instead, the National Capital Region will remain under modified enhanced community quarantine from Wednesday until Sept. 15, or until it decides to enforce the pilot general community quarantine with granular lockdowns.
