Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 29) – The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday reported 17,382 new COVID-19 cases, pushing the nationwide tally to 3,528,796.
The DOH said 77% or 13,298 of the new infections were detected within the last 14 days. Metro Manila is the top contributing region with 1,520, followed by Calabarzon with 1,426, and Davao Region with 1,331.
Active cases or the number of people currently sick went down to 213,587 – which is 6.1% of the total case count.
Among the active cases, 199,893 are considered mild; 8,736 have no symptoms; 3,114 are moderate; 1,526 are severe; and 318 are critical, according to the DOH.
The department also announced 35,382 recoveries, raising the survivor count to 3,261,338 – or 92.4% of the nationwide tally.
The death toll also climbed to 53,871 – or 1.53% of the COVID-19 count – after 70 more people lost their lives to the disease.
Of the new deaths, 65 occurred in January; two each in August and November 2021; and one in July 2021.
The country also recorded a positivity rate – or percentage of tested people who yielded positive results – of 33.3% based on 56,447 tests reported on Jan. 27.
A rate of above 20% is “critical” while below 3% indicates there is adequate testing, according to US nonprofit Covid Act Now. The World Health Organization suggests a positivity rate of below 5% for an area that has controlled the infection.
The DOH said 77 duplicates – including 52 recoveries – were deleted from the tally. It also reclassified 24 recoveries into deaths.
The total excludes data from three laboratories that failed to submit their reports on time. Those laboratories contributed an average of 0.6% of tested samples and 0.7% of positive individuals in the last 14 days, according to the DOH.
