Philippines' active COVID-19 cases drop below 10K

The Philippine tally of active COVID-19 cases fell below 10,000 on Sunday, even as the country reported 166 new infections, according to data released by the Department of Health (DOH).

The tally of active cases fell to 9,982, lower than the 10,038 reported on Saturday—the lowest in nearly seven months since the 9,703 active cases monitored on July 3 last year and the first time since that day that the total was below 10,000.

The new cases brought the total caseload to 4,072,911, with recoveries increasing by 113 to 3,997,162 and the deaths rising by 10 to 65,757.

The National Capital Region (NCR) reported the highest number of cases in the past two weeks with 806. Calabarzon followed with 421, Western Visayas with 256, Central Luzon with 198, and the Davao region with 195.

Broken down by provinces and cities, Manila had the highest with 148, Quezon City with 143, Cavite with 128, Rizal with 119, and Davao del Sur with 105.

The same data showed that there were 8,769 samples and 8,441 individuals tested on January 18, with a cumulative positivity rate of 13.6%.

In terms of facilities, the DOH recorded a bed occupancy rate of 17.9%, with 4,773 out of the 26,677 beds occupied.

Latest data available from the DOH show that there were 166.058 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered as of January 18 — 70.981 million first doses, 73.809 million complete doses, and 21.266 million booster doses. —LBG/BM, GMA Integrated News