Philippines logs 263 new COVID-19 cases; active infections at 9K

The Philippines on Monday reported a total of 2,837,730 COVID-19 cases after 263 more patients were infected with the severe respiratory disease.

In its daily case bulletin, the Department of Health (DOH) said 177 or 67% of the new cases occurred within 14 days from December 7 to December 20, 2021.

The DOH reported that four laboratories that failed to operate on December 18, 2021 and 13 laboratories were not able to submit their data to COVID-19 Document Repository System.

In the last 14 days, the  DOH said these 17 labs contribute, on average, 7.8% of samples tested and 4.1% of positive individuals.

Ngayong 4 PM, Disyembre 20, 2021, ang Department of Health ay nakapagtala ng 263 na karagdagang kaso ng COVID-19. Samantala ay mayroon namang naitalang 390 na gumaling at 45 na pumanaw.

Sa kabuuang bilang ng mga naitalang kaso sa bansa, 0.3% (9,592) ang aktibong kaso, pic.twitter.com/NFCxvCrQsn

— Department of Health (@DOHgovph) December 20, 2021

Also, the DOH said the additional infections also pushed the total active tally to 9,592.

Of the 9,592 active infections, 473 are classified as asymptomatic, 3,569 are mild, 3,375 are moderate, 1,797 are severe, and 378 are critical.

The DOH also detected 45 more COVID-19-related fatalities, bringing the country's death toll to 50,784.

Of the 45 deaths, only nine cases occurred in December 2021; one in November 2021; 17 in October 2021; three in September 2021; four in August 2021; three in July 2021; one in June 2021; three in August 2020; one in July 2020; one in June 2020; one in May 2020; and one in March 2020.

According to the DOH, the delayed inclusion of some data was due to 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," it said.

Meanwhile, the total count of recoveries reached 2,777,354, including 390 new ones.

The nationwide positivity rate remained at 0.8%, which is within the World Health Organization's target. A total of 28,438 COVID-19 tests were conducted.

On the healthcare system, the DOH data indicated that 21% intensive care units beds nationwide are occupied while 10% of mechanical ventilators are in use.

In the metropolis, 22% ICU beds are utilized while 12% ventilators are in use.

The country's health department also revised the total case count by removing five duplicates which are tagged as recoveries.

Also removed from the case count are 105 cases, which are also recoveries that turned out to be negative cases.

Thirty-five recoveries were also reclassified as deaths after final validation.—LDF, GMA News