New Covid-19 cases stay below 1K for 3rd consecutive day

MANILA – The Philippines logged a total of 863 new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) on Friday — the third straight day with only less than 1,000 daily new cases recorded since the start of the pandemic last year.

Friday’s new cases based on the Department of Health’s (DOH) latest Covid-19 bulletin are slightly lower than Thursday’s 975 and Wednesday’s 890, bringing active cases to 17,853 or 0.6 percent of all reported Covid-19 cases in the country.

Of these active cases, most have mild symptoms at 51.5 percent, those with moderate symptoms at 21.57 percent, those with severe symptoms at 14.2 percent, the asymptomatic at 6.6 percent, and those in critical condition at 6.1 percent.

The DOH reported 791 new recoveries from Covid-19 — lower than Thursday’s 1,029 and Wednesday’s 1,710 — with the country’s total recoveries now at 2,764,517 or 97.7 percent of a total of 2,830,387 confirmed Covid-19 cases.

Another 142 new deaths were also reported — lower than Thursday’s 193 and Wednesday’s 200 — bringing the country’s Covid-19 casualties to 48,017 or 1.70 percent of all infections.

According to its data gathered Wednesday, 2.5 percent of 38,998 tests turned out positive for Covid-19.

The country’s health care utilization rate remains low, with 3,700 intensive care unit (ICU) beds in the country at 29 percent occupancy, 20,000 isolation beds at 26 percent occupancy, 13,100 ward beds at 16 percent occupancy, and 18 percent of 3,000 ventilators are in use.

In Metro Manila, there are 1,300 ICU beds at 29 percent occupancy, 4,700 isolation beds at 25 percent occupancy, 3,900 ward beds at 20 percent occupancy, and 19 percent of 1,000 ventilators are in use.