Thursday’s bulletin was posted more than 4 hours later than its usual schedule. The DOH said the Department of Information and Communications Technology has already resolved the previous technical issues in the data repository system “COVIDKaya.”
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 9) — The country on Thursday logged a new record for highest number of new infections reported in a day with 22,820, according to the Department of Health.
The DOH’s latest case bulletin counted a total of 2,161,892 infections in the country, with 7.7% or 166,672 active cases or people currently sick. At least 87% have mild symptoms, 8.3% are asymptomatic, 2.65% are in moderate condition, 1.4% are in severe condition, and 0.7% are in critical condition.
The death toll also climbed to 34,733 – which is 1.61% of the nationwide tally – after 61 more people lost their lives to the disease. Meanwhile, 12,337 others recovered, raising the survivor tally to 1,960,487 or 90.7% of the COVID-19 total.
The DOH said it reclassified 29 survivors into deaths after validation, and deleted 108 duplicate cases, including 96 recoveries.
The total excludes data from five laboratories that failed to submit their reports on time, the agency added. These laboratories contributed an average of 2.3% of tested samples and 2.6% of positive individuals in the last 14 days.
The total also does not cover the 5,132 cases that the DOH announced on the same day, which were added to the September 8 tally.
Highest positivity rate
The positivity rate – or percentage of tested people with positive results – is at 29.4% based on 74,706 tests reported on September 7. It’s the highest rate recorded since data have been available, which indicates an urgent need for more coronavirus tests.
The figure is far beyond the standard positivity rate of below 3% set by US nonprofit Covid Act Now – which OCTA researchers use as reference. The World Health Organization also says positivity rates should be below 5% to indicate that an area has controlled the infection.
