168 new Covid-19 cases, lowest sans data from 24 labs: DOH

MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday logged 168 new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases, the country’s lowest single-day infection count this year due to the failure of 24 laboratories to submit data.

“Of the 168 reported cases today, 159 or 95 percent occurred within the recent 14 days – December 8 to 21, 2021. The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were NCR (National Capital Region) with 47 or 30 percent, Region 4-A with 27 or 17 percent, and Region 6 with 16 or 10 percent,” the DOH said in its daily Covid-19 bulletin.

Tuesday’s new infections brought the total case tally to 2,837,719.

“We dropped 179 negatives after validation from the total case count while we only reported 168 new cases. Thus, the lower total case count today in comparison with yesterday,” it added. “Moreover, 6 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation”.

Meanwhile, the active cases declined further to 9,384 after the DOH reported 372 new recoveries. The country now has 2,777,541 recoveries.

About 3,379 of the active cases are mild, 508 are asymptomatic, 377 are critical, 1,804 are severe, and 3,406 are moderate.

The department also recorded 10 new deaths, pushing the country’s Covid-19 fatalities to 50,794.

“Of the 10 deaths, 6 or 60 percent occurred in December 2021, 2 or 20 percent in November 2021, 1 or 10 percent in August 2021, and 1 or 10 percent in May 2020 due to late encoding of death information to COVIDKaya,” it said.

The DOH said this issue is being coordinated with the epidemiology and surveillance units to ensure information is up to date.

According to DOH data on Dec. 19, only 0.9 percent of 22,964 who were tested turned out positive for Covid-19.

To date, 22 percent of 3,500 intensive care unit beds, 23 percent of 19,500 isolation beds, 11 percent of 12,400 ward beds, and 11 percent of 3,000 ventilators are utilized by patients with Covid-19 nationwide.

Meanwhile, 21 percent of 1,200 intensive care unit beds, 20 percent of 4,600 isolation beds, 17 percent of 3,700 ward beds, and 12 percent of 1,000 ventilators dedicated to patients with Covid-19 are in use in the NCR.