Philippines logs 16,953 COVID-19 infections

The Department of Health on Sunday reported 16,953 new COVID-19 infections, raising the Philippines' total of confirmed cases to 3,545,680.

Active cases were at 202,864, of whom 11,277 are asymptomatic and 186,550 are mild; while 1,534 are severe and 327 are in critical condition.

The DOH said that among the cases reported today, 16,647 or 98% occurred within the last 14 days, from January 17 to January 30.

The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were Region 6 with 2,000 or 12%, National Capital Region with 1,967 or 12%, and Region 4A with 1,871 or 11%.

Total recoveries also reached 3,288,925 after 27,638 more patients recovered from the disease.

The death toll rose to 53,891 with 20 new fatalities.

Of the 20 deaths, the DOH said 16 occurred in January 2022, one each in October, September, August, and July last year due to the late encoding of death information to its system.

Meanwhile, the country's positivity rate was at 31.4%. The total conducted COVID-19 tests were 56,078.

The DOH noted that 69 duplicates were removed from the total case count, while eight cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

The DOH said all laboratories were operational on January 28, while one lab was not able to submit its data on time.

Latest data from the DOH also showed that 46% of the country’s intensive care unit beds are utilized, while 25% of the mechanical ventilators are also in use.

In Metro Manila, 39% of the ICU beds are utilized, while 23% of the ventilators are in use. — BM, GMA News