DOH records 29,707 new COVID-19 infections

MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday reported 2,579 recoveries and 28,707 new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections.

The latest Covid-19 bulletin indicated 128,114 active cases while total recoveries rose to 2,785,183, or 93.9 percent of 2,965,447 infections since the pandemic started in March 2020.

Out of the active cases, 119,276 are mild, 2,851 are moderate, 4,213 are asymptomatic, 1,465 are severe, and 309 are critical.

“Of the 28,707 reported cases today, 28,512 (99 percent) occurred within the recent 14 days –Dec. 27, 2021 to Jan. 9, 2022,” the DOH reported.

The regions with the most cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region (NCR) with 16,803 or 59 percent of new infections; Calabarzon, 5,821 or 20 percent; and Central Luzon, 2,841 or 10 percent.

The death toll has reached 52,150 with 15 new deaths, representing 1.76 percent of overall cases.

“Of the 15 deaths, 11 occurred in January 2022 (73 percent), 1 in December 2021 (7 percent), 1 in October 2021 (7 percent), and 2 in September 2021 (13 percent). Deaths were from Region 4A (3 cases or 20 percent), Region 6 (3 cases or 20 percent), Region 3 (3 cases or 20 percent), Region 2 (2 cases or 13 percent), NCR (2 cases or 13 percent), Region 7 (1 case or 7 percent), and Region 1 (1 case or 7 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 January 7 data, about 44 percent of 77,479 who were tested turned out positive for Covid-19.

“One hundred thirty-five duplicates were removed from the total case count as 116 of these are recoveries,” the DOH said.

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

All laboratories were operational on January 7 but 14 were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.

The DOH said the 14 laboratories contribute, on average, 5.1 percent of samples tested, and 5.7 percent among positive individuals based on data in the past 14 days.

To date, 35 percent of 3,400 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, 39 percent of 19,600 isolation beds, 38 percent of 13,200 ward beds, and 18 percent of 3,000 ventilators are used by patients with Covid-19 nationwide.

Meanwhile, 52 percent of 1,100 ICU beds, 50 percent of 4,700 isolation beds, 65 percent of 4,600 ward beds, and 26 percent of 1,000 ventilators dedicated to patients with Covid-19 are in use in the NCR