The regions with the highest number of new cases in that period were Metro Manila (316 or 20%), Calabarzon (221 or 14%) and Western Visayas (180 or 11%).
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 20) — The Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,712 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday, bringing the nationwide count to 3,652,203.
Of the total number, 60,532 or 1.7% are active cases or currently sick patients, with 55,102 experiencing mild symptoms, 2,848 in moderate condition, 1,421 with severe symptoms, 856 without symptoms, and 305 in critical condition.
The death toll jumped to 55,684, or 1.52% of all infections, after 77 more people lost their lives. Among the 77 fatalities, 51 occurred this month and 20 last month. Six deaths were traced back to last year, three each in October and September.
Meanwhile, 3,686 others got well, raising the recovery total to 3,535,987, which is 96.8% of the overall case count.
Three laboratories did not submit their data on time, the DOH added. These laboratories contributed an average of 0.7% of tested samples and 0.5% of positive individuals in the last 14 days.
Of the newly reported cases, 1,611 (94%) occurred within the past 14 days or from Feb. 7 to 20.
The belated reporting is due to late encoding of information into the COVIDKaya data storage system, the DOH explained.
The DOH said it reclassified 61 initially tagged survivors as among the dead after validation, and deleted 257 duplicate cases, including 246 recoveries.
The positivity rate, or percentage of tested people with positive results, rose to 8.8% based on 28,500 tests reported on Feb. 18.
The World Health Organization recommends positivity rates to fall below 5% for countries to reopen borders.
