9,493 new COVID-19 cases lowest in 4 weeks; active tally at 176K

The Department of Health on Tuesday reported 9,493 COVID-19 infections, bringing the country's caseload to 3,569,665.

This is the lowest number of daily infections since January 4, 2022 when 5,434 cases were reported.

The DOH said all laboratories were operational on January 30, while 10 labs were not able to submit its data on time.

Active infections further decreased to 176,053, of which 6,133 are asymptomatic; 164,995 are mild; 1,529 are severe; and 326 are in critical condition.

Of the cases reported today, the DOH said 6,961 or 73% occurred within the recent 14 days from January 19 to February 1.

The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region with 1,041 or 15%, Region 4A with 775 or 11%, and Region 3 with 696 or 10%.

Total recoveries also reached 3,339,558 after 24,210 more patients recovered from the disease.

The death toll rose to 54,054 with 51 new fatalities.

Of the 51 deaths, the DOH said 50 occurred in January 2022 and one in September 2021 due to the late encoding of death information to its system.

Meanwhile, the country's positivity rate was at 28.8%. The total conducted COVID-19 tests were 31,053.

The DOH noted that 30 duplicates were removed from the total case count, while 16 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

Latest data from the DOH also showed that 46% of the country’s intensive care unit beds are utilized, while 25% of the mechanical ventilators are also in use.

In Metro Manila, 40% of the ICU beds are utilized, while 24% of the ventilators are in use.—LDF, GMA News