Of the newly reported cases, 29,708 (95%) occurred within the past 14 days or from Jan. 7 to 20, the DOH added.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 20) — The Department of Health (DOH) reported 31,173 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday, pushing the nationwide tally to over 3.3 million.
The total count is now at 3,324,478 cases with 275,364 or 8% that are active or currently sick. Of these active cases, 262,168 have mild symptoms; 8,424 have no symptoms; 2,979 are in moderate condition; 1,488 have severe symptoms; and 305 are in critical condition.
The death toll rose to 53,153 — 1.60% of all infections — after 110 more people lost their lives.
Five laboratories did not submit their data and were excluded from the total, the DOH added. These laboratories contributed an average of 1.1% of tested samples and 1.2% of positive individuals in the last 14 days.
The regions with the highest number of new cases in that period were Metro Manila (8,883 or 30%), Calabarzon (6,471 or 22%), and Central Luzon (2,783 or 9%).
Of these additional deaths, 67 occurred this month while 43 occurred last year: three in December, eight in November, 13 in October, eight in September, five in August, four in July, and one each in June and April.
Meanwhile, 26,298 others got better, increasing the recovery count to 2,995,961 or 90.1% of the case tally.
The belated reporting was due to the late encoding of information in the data storage COVIDKaya system, the DOH explained.
The DOH said it reclassified 59 initially tagged survivors as among the dead after validation, and deleted 132 duplicates, including 87 recoveries and one fatality.
There were also 188 cases – with 44 recoveries – that were found to have actually tested negative and were removed from the record.
The positivity rate remains high at 43.3% based on 73,989 tests reported on Jan. 18. According to the World Health Organization, the ideal rate would be below 5% for countries or regions to reopen.
OCTA Research fellow Guido David said figures in Metro Manila have been improving, with the one-week growth rate further falling to -20%. He added that the reproduction rate, or the average number of people infected by a single case, also decreased to 1.58 from Wednesday’s 1.79.
Earlier, he pointed out that the downward trend is similar to what occurred in South Africa, where “a rapid surge [was] followed by a dramatic decrease in infections.”
However, David warned against complacency, saying the capital region remains at “critical risk” for COVID-19, with an average of over 13,000 new cases a day.
