PH logs 356 new Covid-19 cases, lowest in 17 months

MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday logged 356 new Covid-19 cases, the lowest single day infection in 17 months.

In its latest case bulletin, the DOH said the figure pushed the total case tally to 2,835,345.

Meantime, the active cases declined further to 13,026 after the DOH reported 871 new recoveries. The country has now 2,772,278 recoveries.

About 5,314 of the active cases are mild, 899 are asymptomatic, 587 are critical, 2,326 are severe, and 3,900 are moderate.

The DOH also recorded some 92 new deaths which brought the country’s Covid-19 fatalities to 49,591.

“Of the 92 reported deaths, only three occurred in December 2021. About 18 percent of the reported deaths today occurred in November 2021 due to late encoding of death information to COVIDKaya,” the DOH said.

It added this issue is currently being coordinated with the Epidemiology and Surveillance Units to ensure information is up to date.

According to DOH data on Dec. 5, only 1.4 percent of 24,360 who were tested turned out positive for Covid-19.

“About six duplicates were removed from the total case count, as they are recoveries. Also, there were 159 cases that have tested negative and have been removed from the total case count as 157 of them are recoveries,” it said. “Moreover, 87 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation”.

Two laboratories were not operational on Dec. 5 and six laboratories were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.

The DOH noted the eight laboratories contribute, on average, 0.4 percent of samples tested, and 3.6 percent of positive individuals based on data in the last 14 days.

To date, 26 percent of 3,600 intensive care unit beds, 25 percent of 19,800 isolation beds, 13 percent of 12,900 ward beds, and 14 percent of 3,000 ventilators are utilized by patients with Covid-19 nationwide.

Meanwhile, 29 percent of 1,300 intensive care unit beds, 21 percent of 4,700 isolation beds, 19 percent of 3,900 ward beds, and 16 percent of 1,100 ventilators dedicated to patients with Covid-19 are in use in the National Capital Region.