1,745 new COVID-19 cases bring active tally to 55K

The Philippines on Thursday reported 1,745 new COVID-19 cases bringing the nationwide caseload to 3,657,342.

According to the Department of Health (DOH)’s latest bulletin, of the 55,079 active infections recorded, 637 are asymptomatic; 49,927 are mild; 2,788 are moderate; 1,428 are severe and 299 are critical.

The DOH said of the 1,745 reported cases on Thursday, 1,250 or 72% occurred within the recent 14 days from February 11 to February 24, 2022.

Among the top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region (NCR) with 235 or 19%, followed by Region 4-A with 153 or 12% and Region 7 with 133 or 11%.

Total recoveries climbed to 3,546,098 with 2,045 new individuals defeating the viral disease.

The DOH reported 188 new fatalities, pushing the death tally to 55,165.

Meanwhile, the country’s COVID-19 positivity rate was at 6.3% which is higher than the World Health Organization's requirement target of less than 5% positivity rate.

The total conducted COVID-19 tests were at 28,246.

The DOH said all laboratories were operational since February 22, while there were three laboratories that failed to submit data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System.

The Health department reported 112 duplicates were removed from the total case count. Of these, 104 are recoveries.

Meanwhile, at least 126 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

The latest data showed that 28% of 3,900 intensive care unit (ICU) beds for COVID-19 patients nationwide are in use.

At least 17% of the 13,800 ward beds in the country were utilized, while 25% of the 3,600 ward beds in the NCR were in use.—LDF, GMA News