This broke the previous record of 17,231 cases recorded just three days before.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 23) — The country on Monday saw a new all-time high increase in its COVID-19 daily tally after the Department of Health reported 18,332 new infections.
The total count surged to 1,857,646, of which 130,350 or 7% are active cases. Of the currently sick, 94.8% exhibit mild symptoms, 2.5% are asymptomatic, 0.92% are moderate cases, 1.2% are severe, and 0.6% are critical.
The DOH said the latest count did not include data from three non-reporting testing laboratories. Based on figures over the past two weeks, these facilities contribute around 0.2% of samples tested and 0.5% of positive cases.
Nearly 32,000 lives have also now been lost to COVID-19, with 151 newly confirmed fatalities, including 68 which were mistakenly classified as recoveries in previous reports.
This came just three days after the country breached the 31,000-mark in COVID-19 deaths. The DOH has been logging three-digit new fatalities in recent days, with the past week alone adding 1,596 to the death toll which has climbed to 31,961, or 1.72% of the total infected.
Meanwhile, 13,794 more patients were cleared of the virus, raising the number of survivors to 1,695,335. This represents 91.3% of the case tally.
After final validation, the DOH removed 321 duplicates from its data, including 316 recoveries.
Its report further showed that the positivity rate remained high at 24.9% based on the 64,957 tests reported on Aug. 21. This means nearly 1 in 4 people who had themselves tested on the same day was found positive for COVID-19.
A percentage of above 20 suggests inadequate testing efforts and that there are likely more virus-hit individuals in the community who have not been detected, according to the U.S. nonprofit Covid Act Now.
Official figures as of Aug. 22 showed over 30 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered nationwide, with more than 13 million people fully inoculated.
Cases among Filipinos abroad
Among overseas Filipinos, the Department of Foreign Affairs listed 946 new cases, 35 fatalities, and 205 recoveries over the past week.
The total number of infected has reached 22,713, of whom 1,367 died and 12,808 have gotten well.
According to the DFA, Europe is the only region that did not report any new cases among Filipinos in the last seven days. The most new infections were seen in the Middle East and Africa, while the biggest death and recovery counts were logged in the Asia-Pacific region.
