COVID-19 case count soars to nearly 3,000 on last day of 2021
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 31) — The country recorded nearly 3,000 COVID-19 cases on the last day of 2021 after 2,961 more people got infected, latest data from the Department of Health (DOH) showed.
These fresh cases pushed the nationwide tally to 2,843,979.
Active cases or people currently sick climbed to 14,233 - with 8,365 experiencing mild symptoms, 3,197 in moderate condition, 1,701 severe, 628 having no symptoms, and 342 in critical condition.
Of the new cases, 2,927 occurred within the recent 14 days. The top regions with most cases during that period were the National Capital Region with 1,981, Calabarzon with 431, and Central Luzon with 179.
Meanwhile, 481 more patients recovered, bringing the number of survivors to 2,778,242. Another 132 died of COVID-19, raising the death toll to 51,504.
Of the reported deaths, 9 occurred this month, 3 in November, 24 in October, 18 in September, 12 in August, 6 in July, 8 in June, 5 in May, 13 in April, 8 in March, 4 in January 2020, 2 in December 2020, 3 in November 2020, 1 in October 2020, 4 in September 2020, 10 in August 2020, 1 in July 2020, and 1 in March 2020.
The DOH said the late reporting was due to the delayed encoding of information to the data repository system COVIDKaya.
Ten duplicates - including 7 recoveries and 1 death - were removed from the total case count, the DOH noted.
There were also 232 cases found to have tested negative and have been removed from the tally. Of these, 230 were recoveries.
Another 117 cases previously tagged as recoveries were also reclassified as deaths after final validation.
Based on 30,526 tests reported on Dec. 29, the country recorded a positivity rate of 10.3% - way above the World Health Organization's standard of 5%. The last time the rate was at double digits was in Oct. 24.
The DOH said two laboratories were not operational on Dec. 29, while 6 others were not able to submit their data on time. These labs contribute around 0.4% of samples tested and 0.3% of positive individuals, the agency added.
