Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 25) — The Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,671 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing the nationwide tally to 3,658,892.
Of the total, 55,140 or 1.5% are active cases, or people currently sick – with 49,988 experiencing mild symptoms, 2,784 in moderate condition, 1,424 with severe symptoms, 645 without symptoms, and 299 in critical condition.
The death toll is now at 56,224 — 1.54% of all infections — with 59 new fatalities. Among the 59 deaths, 30 (51%) occurred this month and 11 (19%) in January. There were also 18 traced to last year: two each in December and November, five each in October and September, and two each in August and July.
Meanwhile, 1,586 others recovered, raising the survivor count to 3,547,528 — or 97% of the COVID-19 count.
Three laboratories did not submit data, the DOH said. These laboratories contributed an average of 0.7% of tested samples and 1.1% of positive individuals in the last 14 days.
Of the newly reported cases, 1,200 (72%) occurred within the past 14 days, or from Feb. 12 to 25. The regions with the highest number of new cases in that period were Metro Manila (253 or 21%), Calabarzon (171 or 14%), and Central Luzon (120 or 10%).
The belated reporting is due to late encoding of information in the COVIDKaya data storage system, the DOH explained.
The DOH said it reclassified 41 initially tagged survivors as among the dead after validation, and deleted 121 duplicate cases – including 115 recoveries.
The positivity rate, or percentage of tested people with positive results, further dropped to 5.6% based on 28,039 tests reported on Feb. 23.
The World Health Organization recommends that positivity rates fall below 5% for countries or regions to reopen.
