The positivity rate, or percentage of tested people with positive results, dropped further to 5% based on 25,313 tests reported on February 25.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 27) — The Department of Health (DOH) recorded 1,038 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, pushing the nationwide tally to 3,661,049.
Of the total, 1.4% or 52,961 are active cases or currently sick patients with 47,910 experiencing mild symptoms; 2,780 in moderate condition, 1,417 with severe symptoms; 556 without symptoms and 298 in critical condition.
The death toll rose to 56,401 — 1.54% of all cases — after 51 more people lost their lives. Among the 51 deaths, nine (18%) occurred this month and two (4%) last month. There were also 40 deaths traced to last year: one in December, eight in November, three in October, nine in September, five in August, six in July, four in June, one each in May and February, and two in January.
Meanwhile, 1,999 others recovered, lifting the survivor count to 3,551,687 or 97% of the COVID-19 tally.
One laboratory did not submit data, the DOH said. The lone non-reporting laboratory contributed an average of 0.05% of tested samples and 0.05% of positive individuals in the last 14 days.
The World Health Organization recommends a positivity rate below 5% for at least 14 days for countries to reopen borders.
Of the newly reported cases today, 1,015 (98%) occurred within the past 14 days or from February 14 to 27. The regions with the highest number of new cases were Metro Manila (227 or 22%), Western Visayas (129 or 13%) and Calabarzon (104 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 44 initially tagged survivors as among the dead after validation, and deleted nine duplicate cases, including three recoveries and one fatality.
