Philippines logs 30,552 new COVID-19 cases; active cases at 280,619

The Philippines logged 30,552 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the nationwide tally to 3,387,524.

Based on the Department of Health's (DOH’s ) latest bulletin, active infections stood at 280,619 - 8,591 were asymptomatic, 267,236 were mild, 2,996 were moderate, 1,491 were severe, and 305 were in critical condition.

The Health Department said of the 30,552 reported cases on Saturday, 28,926 or 95% occurred within the last 14 days from January 9 to 22.

The regions with the highest number of new cases in the past two weeks were Region 4-A with 5,991 or 21%, followed by the National Capital Region (NCR) with 5,989 or 21%, and Region 3 with 2,563 or 9%.

The DOH said recoveries climbed by 41,471 to 3,053,499, while 97 new fatalities pushed the death toll to 53,406.

The Philippines' COVID-19 positivity rate increased to 45.1%, higher than the World Health Organization's requirement target of less than 5% positivity rate. Total conducted COVID-19 tests were 68,049.

The latest data showed that 52% of 3,800 intensive care unit (ICU) beds for COVID-19 patients nationwide were in use.

At least 53% of the 14,800 ward beds in the country were utilized, while 53% of the 4,500 ward beds in the NCR were in use.

Based on the report, the DOH said all laboratories were operational since January 20, while all laboratories also submitted their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System.

The Health Department reported 111 duplicates removed from the total case count. Of these, 71 were recoveries.

Meanwhile, at least 57 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation. — DVM, GMA News