NCR, Calabarzon top list of areas with new Covid-19 cases

MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday logged 318 new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases, bringing the nation’s overall tally to 2,838,792.

Monday’s new infections were slightly lower than Sunday’s 433. This brought the total number of active infections to 9,579.

The top regions with the most cases in the last two weeks were the National Capital Region with 130 or 41 percent, Calabarzon with 45 or 11 percent, and Central Luzon with 28 or 9 percent of the country’s new cases.

In its Covid-19 bulletin, the DOH said 255 new recoveries pushed the total recovery count to 2,778,002.

Of the active cases, 3,644 are mild, 445 are asymptomatic, 374 are critical, 1,777 are severe, and 3,339 are moderate.

“Of the 318 reported cases today, 315 or 99 percent occurred within the recent 14 days — December 14 to 27, 2021,” the DOH said.

The death toll has reached 51,211 with 11 new deaths.

“Of the 11 deaths, 9 or 82 percent occurred in December 2021 and 2 or 18 percent in October 2021,” the DOH said.

The COVIDKaya is a digital application used by health care workers to collect and share data about Covid-19 cases.

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

According to DOH data on December 25, about 2.2 percent of 14,237 who were tested turned out positive for Covid-19.

“There were 166 cases that have tested negative and have been removed from the final case count and reclassified as recoveries,” the DOH said.

It added five cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

Two laboratories were not operational on December 25 and 26 and were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.

Of the 26 laboratories, 12 confirmed that they were closed and non-operating on December 25.

The DOH noted that the 28 laboratories contribute, on average, 9.5 percent of samples tested, and 6.4 percent of positive individuals based on data in the last 14 days.

To date, 18 percent of 3,500 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, 21 percent of 19,100 isolation beds, 10 percent of 12,300 ward beds, and 10 percent of 2,900 ventilators are utilized by patients with Covid-19 nationwide.

Meanwhile, 21 percent of 1,200 ICU beds, 18 percent of 4,400 isolation beds, 16 percent of 3,700 ward beds, and 12 percent of 1,000 ventilators dedicated to patients with Covid-19 are in use in the National Capital Region.