24,938 new COVID-19 cases logged; active tally nears 263K

The Philippines on Monday registered 24,938 new COVID-19 cases, raising the Philippines' total caseload to 3,442,056.

Active infections reached 262,997 of which 7,944 are asymptomatic; 250,235 are mild; 1,499 are severe; and 309 are in critical condition.

Of the cases reported today, the DOH said 24,239 or 97% occurred within the recent 14 days from January 11 to January 24.

The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region with 3,610 or 15%, Region IV-A with 3,382 or 14%, and Region VII with 2,562 or 11%.

Total recoveries also rose to 3,125,540 after 35,461 more patients recovered from the illness.

The death toll climbed to 53,519 with 47 new fatalities.

Of the 47 deaths, the DOH said 43 occurred in January 2022, three in October 2021, and one in September 2021 due to the late encoding of death information to its system.

Meanwhile, the country's positivity rate was at 40.6%. The total conducted COVID-19 tests were 59,896.

The DOH noted that 98 duplicates were removed from the total case count, while 11 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

The DOH said all laboratories were operational on January 22, while five labs were not able to submit their data.

Latest data from the DOH also showed that 51% of the country’s intensive care unit beds are utilized, while 25% of the mechanical ventilators are also in use.

In Metro Manila, 47% of the ICU beds are utilized, while 27% of the ventilators are in use.—LDF, GMA News