DOH reports 370 new COVID-19 cases, 171 more deaths
The Department of Health (DOH) reported 370 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, pushing the nationwide total to 2,835,593.
Of the total, 0.4% or 12,510 are active cases or currently sick patients, with 4,974 experiencing mild symptoms, 3,916 in moderate condition, 2,261 with severe symptoms, 883 without symptoms and 476 in critical condition.
The death toll climbed to 49,761 — which is 1.75% of the case tally — after 171 more people lost their lives. The DOH noted that of the 171 newly reported deaths, only six occurred this month, while 19% or 32 occurred in November and the rest from previous months. The delayed reporting was due to late encoding of data, the agency said.
Meanwhile, 859 others got better, raising the recovery count to 2,773,322 or 97.8% of the COVID-19 count.
The DOH said it reclassified 150 survivors as among the dead after validation, and deleted 27 duplicates including 25 recoveries and one fatality. There were also 95 cases — of which 92 were tagged as recovered — that were found to have actually tested negative and were removed from the record.
Data from seven laboratories were excluded from the total — two did not operate on Dec. 6 while five failed to submit their reports on time. These laboratories contributed an average of 1.2% of tested samples and 1.9% of positive individuals in the last 14 days.
The positivity rate, or percentage of tested people with positive results, remained under 2% for a week and below 5% since Nov. 11. The rate is at 1.6% based on 28,942 tests reported on Dec. 6.
The World Health Organization says that a country may reopen if it maintains a positivity rate of under 5% for at least 14 days. But border restrictions remain tight due to the threat of the potentially more infectious Omicron variant.
