Philippines logs 4,600 new COVID-19 cases; active cases at 21,418

The Philippines on Sunday logged 4,600 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the nationwide tally to 2,851,931.

Based on the Department of Health (DOH)’s latest bulletin, active infections stood at 21,418, of which 769 are asymptomatic, 15,644 are mild, 3,081 are moderate, 1,589 are severe, and 335 are in critical condition.

Of the 4,600 reported cases today, DOH noted that 4,548, or 99% occurred between December 20, 2021 to January 2, 2022.

The regions with the most cases in the past two weeks were the National Capital Region with 3,279 infections, Region 4-A with 676, and Region 3 with 252.

The DOH said recoveries climbed by 535 to 2,778,943, while 25 new fatalities pushed the death toll to 51,570.

Of the 25 deaths, seven occurred in December, two in November, one in October, four in September, six in August, one in June 2021, three in April, and one in March due to late encoding of death information to COVIDKaya.

The DOH said this issue was currently being coordinated with the Epidemiology and Surveillance Units to ensure information is up to date.

According to the DOH, 19.6% of the 26,122 individuals tested were found positive for COVID-19 on December 31.

The latest data showed that 22% of 3,500 intensive care unit (ICU) beds for COVID-19 patients nationwide were in use.

At least 14% of the 12,000 ward beds in the country were utilized, while 26% of the 3,700 ward beds in the National Capital Region (NCR) were occupied.

Based on the report, the DOH said two laboratories were not operational on December 31, while nine laboratories failed to submit data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System.

The Health Department reported that 38 duplicates, which includes 36 recoveries, were removed from the total case count.

The 117 cases that tested negative for COVID-19 were also removed from the total case count. Of these, 116 were recoveries.

Meanwhile, at least 7 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases placed the National Capital Region under Alert Level 3 from January 3 to 15, 2022, following the sharp increase in new COVID-19 cases.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Friday that the highly transmissible Omicron variant may already be responsible for this rise in COVID-19 cases in the country.

The country has detected 14 Omicron variant cases, including three local cases. — DVM, GMA News