Philippines reports 1,190 new COVID-19 cases; active tally down to 23K

The Department of Health on Wednesday reported 1,190 new COVID-19 cases and 2,759 new recoveries, bringing down the active infections in the country to 23,846.

The active case count is the lowest since the 23,532 on January 12.

The new cases, meanwhile, brought the country's total caseload to 2,820,494.

Ngayong 4 PM, Nobyembre 17, 2021, ang Department of Health ay nakapagtala ng 1,190 na karagdagang kaso ng COVID-19. Samantala ay mayroon namang naitalang 2,759 na gumaling at 309 na pumanaw.

Sa kabuuang bilang ng mga naitalang kaso sa bansa, 0.8% (23,846) ang aktibong kaso, pic.twitter.com/3qmefADA5Y

— Department of Health (@DOHgovph) November 17, 2021

Of the over 23,000 active cases, 58.1% are mild, 5.2% are asymptomatic, 12% are severe, and 5% are in critical condition.

The new recoveries also increased the total number of patients who defeated the virus to 2,750,531.

The death toll climbed to 46,117 with 309 new fatalities.

The DOH said of the 309 reported deaths, only 18 occurred in November 2021. 61% of the reported deaths on Wednesday occurred in October 2021 due to the late encoding of death information to COVIDKaya.

"This issue is currently being coordinated with the Epidemiology and Surveillance Units to ensure information is up to date," the DOH said.

The country's positivity rate was at 3.5%, which is already below the World Health Organization's requirement. The total conducted COVID-19 tests were 33,567.

The DOH also noted that 37 duplicates were removed from the total case count, while 264 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

All laboratories were operational on November 15, while one laboratory was not able to submit its data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System.

Latest data from the DOH also showed that 33% of the country’s intensive care unit beds are utilized, while 21% of the mechanical ventilators are also in use.

In Metro Manila, 33% of the ICU beds are utilized, while 22% of the ventilators are in use.—LDF, GMA News