Philippines' 1,427 new COVID-19 cases lowest since December 2021

The Department of Health on Monday reported 1,427 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the country's total tally to 3,653,526, as five laboratories failed to submit data on time.

The new infections, lowest since December 30, 2021, brought the country's active case count to 58,657, of which 53,326 are mild, 760% are asymptomatic, 1,422 are severe, and 304 are critical.

Ngayong 4 PM, Pebrero 21, 2022, ang Department of Health ay nakapagtala ng 1,427 na karagdagang kaso ng COVID-19. Samantala ay mayroon namang naitalang 3,269 na gumaling at 79 na pumanaw. pic.twitter.com/dCoJflyXTu

— Department of Health (@DOHgovph) February 21, 2022

Of the cases reported today, the DOH said 1,389 or 97% occurred within the recent 14 days from February 8 to 21.

The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region with 318 or 23%, Region 4-A with 168 or 12%, and Region 6 with 159 or 11%.

Total recoveries increased to 3,539,106 after 3,269 more patients defeated the viral disease.

The death toll rose to 55,763 with 79 new fatalities.

Of the 79 deaths, 66 occurred in February 2022, eight in January 2022, four in October 2021, and one in September 2021 due to the late encoding of death information to DOH's system.

The country's positivity rate was at 7.5%. The total conducted COVID-19 tests were 25,000.

The DOH noted that 104 duplicates were removed from the total case count, while 52 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

Latest data from the DOH also showed that 30% of the country’s intensive care unit beds are utilized, while 16% of the mechanical ventilators are also in use.

In Metro Manila, 28% of the ICU beds are utilized, while 19% of the ventilators are in use.—LDF, GMA News