2,232 new COVID-19 cases recorded; active tally down to 65K

The Philippines on Friday recorded 2,232 new COVID-19 infections increasing the nationwide tally to 3,648,925.

According to the Department of Health (DOH)’s latest bulletin, 65,796 active cases logged, of which 946 are asymptomatic; 60,252 are mild; 2,869 are moderate; 1,422 are severe; and 307 are critical .

The DOH said of the 2,232 reported cases on Friday, 2,131 or 95% occurred within the recent 14 days from February 5 to February 18, 2022.

The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region (NCR) with 378 or 18%, followed by Region 4-A with 236 or 11% and Region 7 with 212 or 10%.

Total recoveries climbed to 3,527,720 with 3,010 new individuals defeating the viral disease.

The DOH reported 79 new fatalities, increasing the death tally to 55,409.

Meanwhile, the country’s COVID-19 positivity rate was at 9.1% higher than the World Health Organization's requirement target of less than 5% positivity rate.

The total conducted COVID-19 tests were at 29,812.

The DOH said all laboratories were operational since February 16, while there were five laboratories that failed to submit data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System.

It also reported 100 duplicates were removed from the total case count. Of these, 95 are recoveries.

Meanwhile, at least 70 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

Based on the latest data, it showed that 31% of 3,800 intensive care unit (ICU) beds for COVID-19 patients nationwide are in use.

At least 21% of the 14,800 ward beds in the country were utilized, while 25% of the 4,200 ward beds in the NCR were in use.—LDF, GMA News