Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 24) – The Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,745 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday, pushing the nationwide tally to 3, 657,342.
Of the new cases reported, 1,250 (72%) occurred within the last 14 days or from Feb. 11 to 24.
The death toll increased to 56,165, or 1.54% of the total case count, as 188 more succumbed to the disease.
Of the new fatalities, 94 occurred in February, 36 in January, two in December 2021, one each in November and June 2021, six in October 2021, 44 in September 2021, and four in August 2021.
A total of 2,045 persons recovered, raising the recovery count to 3,546,098, or 97.0% of the nationwide tally.
The regions with the highest number of new cases during that period were Metro Manila (235 or 19%), Calabarzon (153 or 12%) and Region 7 (133 or 11%).
The number of active cases or people currently ill is at 55,079, which is 1.5% of the total. Of the active cases, 49,927 have mild symptoms; 2,788 are in moderate condition; 1,428 have severe symptoms; 637 are asymptomatic; and 299 are in critical condition.
The belated reporting was due to delays in the encoding of information in the COVIDKaya data storage system, the DOH explained.
The DOH said it reclassified 126 survivors as among the dead after validation, and deleted 112 duplicates, including 104 recoveries.
Three laboratories were unable to submit their data on time and were excluded from the count. These laboratories contributed an average of 0.6% of tested samples and 0.1% of positive individuals in the last 14 days.
The positivity rate is at 6.3% based on 28,246 tests reported on Feb. 22.
According to the World Health Organization, positivity rates should fall below 5% for countries to reopen.
