Philippines registers 360 new COVID-19 infections; active cases at 11K

The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday recorded 360 fresh COVID-19 infections, pushing the Philippines' total case count to 2,836,803.

Of the 360 newly-recorded infections, 348 or 97% occurred from November 30  to December 13, 2021. 

"The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were NCR (65 or 19%), Region 4-A (32 or 9%) and Region 6 (32 or 9%)," DOH also said in its case bulletin.

The DOH also reported that the active case tally decreased to 11,083 from Sunday's active cases of 11,255.

Of the 11,083, 4,292 are mild, 782 are asymptomatic, 1,948 are severe, and 399 are in critical condition.

Ngayong 4 PM, Disyembre 13, 2021, ang Department of Health ay nakapagtala ng 360 na karagdagang kaso ng COVID-19. Samantala ay mayroon namang naitalang 519 na gumaling at 61 na pumanaw.

Sa kabuuang bilang ng mga naitalang kaso sa bansa, 0.4% (11,083) ang aktibong kaso, pic.twitter.com/IaipHEddDp

— Department of Health (@DOHgovph) December 13, 2021

Further, the nation's health department said 61 more people succumbed to the severe respiratory disease while 519 more patients recovered.

These figures brought the total number of recoveries and deaths to 2,775,379 and 50,341, respectively.

Of the additional 61 fatalities,  nine occurred in December 2021, 26 in November 2021, 23 in October 2021, and three in September 2021.  DOH noted the late report of some deaths was due to delays in encoding of cases in its data.

The country's positivity rate, meanwhile, was at 1.1%, which is within World Health Organization's target of below 5%. The total conducted tests were at 35,811.

The DOH once again modified the total case count after removing two duplicates, including one recovery, and 147 cases tagged as recoveries, which were found to have tested negative.

Also, 49 recoveries were redesignated as deaths after final validation.

The DOH said four laboratories failed to operate on December 11, while  five laboratories did not submit their case count.

"Based on data in the last 14 days, the 9 labs contribute, on average, 1.7% of samples tested and 0.8% of positive individuals," the DOH wrote.

As for the healthcare utilization rate, the DOH recorded an occupancy rate of 23% for Philippines' intensive care unit beds while it also reported 12% utilization rate for mechanical ventilators.

In the metropolis, 25% of the ICU beds are in use, while 15% of the ventilators are occupied.—LDF, GMA News