PH Covid-19 cases rise by 3,375; recoveries now 208K

FILE: SWAB TEST. Several government employees and private individuals wait for their turn for the swab testing at mega swabbing center for Covid-19 in the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City. Personnel of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) collect and do the test through Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machines. (PNA photo by Jess M. Escaros Jr.)

MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday reported 3,375 new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections, raising the country’s overall tally to 276,289 with only 63,408 active cases.

Of the active cases, it said that about 87.5 percent of the patients have mild symptoms, 8.7 percent are asymptomatic, 1.1 percent are severe, and 2.7 percent are in critical condition.

The majority of the newly announced cases are from the National Capital Region (NCR) with 963, and the provinces of Bulacan, 448; Cavite, 274; Negros Occidental, 153; and Batangas with 119 infections.

It also logged 317 new recoveries and 53 deaths, bringing the total number of recoveries to 208,096 and the number of deaths to 4,785.

Of the 53 deaths, 36 occurred in September (68%), 13 in August (25%) and four in July (8%).

NCR has 25 deaths or 47 percent, Calabarzon has 12 or 23 percent, Western Visayas has four or 8 percent, Northern Mindanao has four or 8 percent, Zamboanga Peninsula has three or 6 percent, while Central Luzon, Bicol Region, Mimaropa, CAR, and returning overseas Filipinos have one each or 2 percent.

“There were 19 duplicates that were removed from the total case count and of these, 11 recovered cases have been removed. There’s one recovered case found to be negative and was removed from the total case count after final validation, and there were 67 cases that were previously reported as recovered but after final validation, they were 11 deaths and 56 active cases,” the DOH said.

As of Wednesday, the 97 licensed reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) laboratories and 29 licensed GeneXpert laboratories have conducted a total of 3,039,945 tests nationwide.

The DOH said it has a 21,500 total bed capacity dedicated to Covid-19 patients.

Occupied are about 46 percent of 1,900 intensive care unit beds; 45 percent of 13,800 isolation beds; and 46 percent of 5,800 ward beds.

About 27 percent of 2,200 ventilators are also in use.