DOH: 14,640 new COVID-19 cases recorded from July 11-17, up 44%

The Philippines logged a total of 14,640 new COVID-19 infections from July 11 to July 17, 2022, around 44% higher than the cases reported the previous week, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday.

Based the department's weekly case bulletin, the daily case average for the week jumped to 2,091 from the 1,467 recorded from July 4 to July 10. The COVID-19 cases during that period was 10,271.

One more verified COVID-19-related death that occurred in October 2021 was recorded by DOH.

Data also showed that 589 severe and critical cases are currently admitted in hospitals due to the viral disease as of July 17, Sunday.

Of the 2,630 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, 481 or 18.3% were occupied. Meanwhile, 5,189 or 23.8% of the 21,809 non-ICU COVID-19 beds were in use.

Of the new cases recorded in the recent covered period, there were 35 individuals tagged as a new severe or critical case. This was 0.24% of the new cases reported for the week.

OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David reported on Monday that Aklan, Tarlac, Pampanga, Laguna, and Nueva Ecija all recorded a “very high” COVID-19 positivity rate above 20%.

Meanwhile, the National Capital Region’s (NCR) positivity rate remained at 12.6%.

David said they are not yet seeing anything alarming as long as the healthcare utilization in the country does not exceed over 50%.

Vaccination updates

A total of 71,322,848 individuals or 91.32% of the government’s target population are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to DOH.

Of this number, 267,096 were vaccinated from July 11 to July 17.

Meanwhile, at least 6.7 million senior citizens or 77.81% of the target A2 population have also received their primary vaccine series.

The DOH also noted that 15,592,533 individuals have received their booster shots. Of which, 249,881 were boosted in the same period.

DOH last Tuesday said it is not yet seeing the need to mandate the administration of COVID-19 booster shots, just like the primary vaccine series, to the general public despite its still low uptake.—LDF, GMA News