Philippines logs 1,891 new COVID-19 cases on Jan. 16-22

The Philippines recorded a total of 1,891 new COVID-19 infections from January 16 to January 22, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.

Based on the agency’s latest bulletin, the number of cases recorded in the past week was lower than the 2,934 cases registered from January 9 to January 15.

The daily case average for the recent week was 270, a 35% lower tally than the previous week’s 419.

This week marked the 12th week with less than 10,000 weekly new cases and the fourth week with less than 5,000 new cases.

According to OCTA Research, the National Capital Region’s (NCR) seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate further dropped to 2.4% on January 21, from 3.7% on January 14.

However, 104 additional verified COVID-19-related deaths were belatedly recorded by the DOH from May 2020 to January 2023.

Of these deaths, nine occurred in January 2023, one in December 2022, one in November 2022, eight in February 2022, seven in January 2022, 13 in October 2021, nine in September 2021, 12 in August 2021, seven in July 2021, seven in June 2021, three in May 2021, 12 in April 2021, four in March 2021, one in February 2021, three in January 2021, one in December 2020, one in October 2020, two in September 2020, two in August 2020, and one in May 2020.

Seven of these fatalities occurred from January 9 to January 22, alone.

Vaccination, hospital updates

Further, at least 73.8 million Filipinos, or 94.52% of the government’s target population are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to DOH.

Of this number, 16,170 completed their primary series from January 16 to January 22.

There are also 21.2 million boosted individuals now, of whom 51,925 were boosted in the same period.

Meanwhile, at least 6.9 million senior citizens, or 79.46% of the target A2 population have also received their primary vaccine series.

Data also showed that there were 432 severe and critical cases admitted in hospitals due to COVID-19 as of January 22. This was 9.4% of the total COVID-19 admissions.

Of the new cases recorded in the recent week, there were four patients tagged as new severe or critical cases. DOH said this was only 0.23% of the new cases reported for the week.

At least 370 or 16.1% of the 2,299 intensive care unit (ICU) beds were also used, while 3,509 or 19.1% of the 18,410 non-ICU COVID-19 beds were occupied. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News