Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 3) – The country’s COVID-19 tally rose by 866 on Wednesday, the smallest single-day increase this year, the Department of Health (DOH) reported.
It’s the lowest single-day count since Dec. 28, when the government announced 421 new infections.
Total cases reached 3,663,920, of which 50,827 are active.
The positivity rate was also at 4.7% based on 23,738 tests recorded on Feb. 28.
However, the DOH said eight testing laboratories failed to submit reports on time. These eight facilities contribute an average of 3.8% of samples tested and 1.5% of positive cases, based on data in the last two weeks.
The bulletin showed 757 (or 87%) of the newly listed cases occurred within the past 14 days. Metro Manila was the top contributing region with 176 (or 23%), followed by Western Visayas with 119 (or 16%), and Central Luzon with 82 (or 11%).
The department also confirmed 53 new deaths, a day after announcing zero fatalities. Of this number, 23 occurred in February, while two were from January. There were also 25 late reports from last year, as well as three from 2020.
A total of 56,504 people nationwide have now been killed by the disease.
Recoveries, meanwhile, jumped to 3,556,589 with 1,622 more patients cleared of infection.
According to the DOH, 45,862 of the active cases are mild, 474 have no symptoms, 2,776 are moderate, 1,417 are severe, and 298 are critical.
Five duplicate entries were deleted from the total case count after final validation, while 46 cases previously classified as recoveries were corrected as deaths.
