Philippines marks third week in a row of less than 10K COVID-19 cases

The Philippines registered 8,004 new COVID-19 infections from November 14 to November 20, 2022, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday.

It was the third consecutive week that the DOH logged fewer than 10,000 new cases.

Based on DOH’s weekly bulletin, the daily case average for the recent week was 1,143 — 12% lower than the 1,296 infections monitored from November 7 to November 13.

Latest data from the agency also showed a total of 93 additional verified COVID-19-related deaths belatedly reported in the past week. These deaths were logged from September 2020 until November this year.

“Of the 93 deaths, 28 occurred in November 2022, one in October 2022, one in March 2022, four in February 2022, 10 in January 2022, one in December 2021, eight in October 2021, 14 in September 2021, seven in August 2021, two in July 2021, two in June 2021, five in May 2021, four in April 2021, four in March 2021, one in February 2021, and one in September 2020,” the DOH said.

Twenty-eight of these fatalities occurred between November 7 to November 20, it added.

The agency said 568 severe and critical cases have badmitted in hospitals due to COVID-19 as of November 20. Of the 2,358 intensive care unit (ICU) beds for coronavirus patients, 493, or 20.9% were occupied. 4,796 or 23.1% of the 20,754 non-ICU COVID-19 beds, meanwhile, were currently in use.

Of the new cases recorded in the recent week, there were two individuals tagged as new severe or critical cases.

938 new cases on Monday

Meanwhile, the DOH recorded 981 new COVID-19 infections in the country on Monday — the lowest number of reported cases since last week.

This increased the total nationwide caseload to 4,026,895 and further decreased the active cases to 18,179, according to the agency’s latest bulletin. For almost three weeks, active cases in the country were lower than 20,000.

The total number of recoveries climbed to 3,944,231 while the death toll rose to 64,485.

Metro Manila remained the region with the highest number of new infections in the last 14 days with 3,457. It was followed by CALABARZON with 2,032; Western Visayas with 1,498; Central Luzon with 1,176 and Central Visayas with 1,129.

The country’s bed occupancy rate remained at low risk with 23.2% or 6,544 of the total 28,154 beds nationwide occupied and 21,610 vacant.

8,272 individuals were tested for COVID-19 on Sunday, November 20. 298 testing laboratories submitted their results.

Vaccination updates

Meanwhile, over 73 million Filipinos, or 93.48% of the government’s target population have completed their COVID-19 vaccine primary doses, according to DOH.  Around 20 million have received their booster doses.

At least 6.9 million senior citizens or 79.46% of the target A2 population have also received their primary vaccine series, the agency said. —NB, GMA News