Philippines' 866 COVID-19 cases new record-low this year

The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday reported 866 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest daily infections recorded this year, as eight laboratories failed to submit data on time.

The new infections bring the nationwide tally to 3,663,920. Active cases, meanwhile, stood at 50,827.

Of the active cases, 474 are asymptomatic, 45,862 are mild, 2,776 are moderate, 1,417 are severe, and 298 are in critical condition.

The DOH said of the 866 reported cases on Wednesday, 757 or 87% occurred within the recent 14 days from February 17 to March 2, 2022.

The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region (NCR) with 176 or 23%, followed by Region 6 with 119 or 16% and Region 3 with 82 or 11%.

Meanwhile, the country’s COVID-19 positivity rate was at 4.7%, which is within the World Health Organization's requirement target of less than 5% positivity rate.

The total conducted COVID-19 tests were at 23,738.

According to the DOH’s latest report, all laboratories were operational since February 28, while there were eight laboratories that failed to submit data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System.

“Based on data in the last 14 days, the eight labs contribute, on average, 3.8% of samples tested and 1.5% of positive individuals,” the Health department said.

Meanwhile, at least five duplicates were removed from the total case count. Of these, three are recoveries.

It reported 46 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

Data also showed that 25% of 3,700 intensive care unit (ICU) beds for COVID-19 patients nationwide are in use.

At least 14% of the 14,000 ward beds in the country were utilized, while 22% of the 3,900 ward beds in the NCR were in use.—LDF, GMA News