14,249 new Philippine COVID-19 cases reported; death toll exceeds 30,000

The Philippines’ tally of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases rose to 1,727,231 on Saturday with 14,249 new infections, marking the fourth consecutive day when more than 12,000 new cases were recorded.

This is the second-highest number of daily cases recorded since the start of the pandemic, with the all-time high of 15,310 recorded on April 2.

According to the Department of Health (DOH), the new cases brought the nationwide tally of active cases to 98,847, also the highest recorded since April 23.

Of this, 95,9% are mild, 1% are asymptomatic, 1.4% are severe, and 0.8% are in critical condition.

The DOH also announced that total recoveries climbed to 1,598,314 after 11,714 more patients recovered from the illness while 233 new fatalities brought the death toll to 30,070.

Four laboratories failed to submit data on time.

Meanwhile, 320 duplicate cases were also removed from the total case count.

“Moreover, 14 cases previously tagged as recoveries have been validated to be active cases, and 142 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation,” it said.

Data from the DOH showed that 70% of intensive care unit beds nationwide are in use while 50% of mechanical ventilators are occupied.

In the National Capital Region (NCR), 71% of the ICU beds are being utilized by patients while 53% of the mechanical ventilators are in use.

The OCTA Research group earlier said that the reproduction number of the coronavirus causing COVID-19 has gone up to a critical 1.85 in the NCR amid the threat of the highly contagious Delta variant. — DVM, GMA News