36.7K more recover from coronavirus, 29.8K new cases: DOH

MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday reported 36,763 recoveries and 29,828 new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections.

The latest Covid-19 bulletin indicated 273,580 active cases while total recoveries rose to 3,090,164, or 90.4 percent of 3,417,216 infections since the pandemic started in March 2020.

Out of the active cases, 260,399 are mild, 3,006 are moderate, 8,371 are asymptomatic, 1,496 are severe, and 308 are critical.

“Of the 29,828 reported cases today, 29,237 (98 percent) occurred within the recent 14 days — Jan. 10 to Jan. 23, 2022,” the DOH reported.

The regions with the most cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region (NCR) with 5,178 or 18 percent of new infections; Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), 4,227 or 14 percent; and Central Luzon, 2,787 or 10 percent.

The death toll has reached 53,472 with 67 new deaths, representing 1.56 percent of overall cases.

“Of the 67 deaths, 49 occurred in January 2022 (73 percent), one in December 2021 (1 percent), two in November 2021 (3 percent), eight in October 2021 (12 percent), four in September 2021 (6 percent), one in August 2021 (1 percent), one in July 2021 (1 percent), and one in June 2021 (one percent) due to the late encoding of death information to COVIDKaya,” the DOH said.

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

According to the Jan. 21 data, about 41.8 percent of 69,014 who were tested turned out positive for Covid-19.

“Some 136 duplicates were removed from the total case count as 78 of these are recoveries and one is a death,” the DOH said.

Meanwhile, 22 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after validation.

All laboratories were operational on Jan. 8 but 10 were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.

The DOH said the 14 laboratories contribute, on average, 6.2 percent of samples tested, and 6.3 percent among positive individuals based on data in the past 14 days.

To date, 51 percent of 3,800 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, 52 percent of 20,500 isolation beds, 53 percent of 15,100 ward beds, and 24 percent of 3,100 ventilators are used by patients with Covid-19 nationwide.

Meanwhile, 48 percent of 1,300 ICU beds, 46 percent of 4,700 isolation beds, 52 percent of 4,500 ward beds, and 27 percent of 1,100 ventilators dedicated to patients with Covid-19 are in use in the NCR.