COVID-19 cases top 2 million

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 1) — The country's total number of COVID-19 cases breached two million on Wednesday after 14,216 more people were reported infected, the Department of Health said.

The total is at 2,003,955 with 7% or 140,949 active cases or currently ill patients. At least 96.1% of active cases have mild symptoms, 1.2% have severe symptoms, 1.1% are asymptomatic, 1.03% are in moderate condition and 0.6% are in critical condition.

"The relatively low number of cases today is due to lower laboratory output last Monday," the department said in an addendum to its case bulletin.

The death toll rose to 33,533 or 1.67% of the case count after 86 more people lost their lives. Meanwhile, 18,754 others recovered, lifting the survivor tally to 1,829,473 or 91.3% of the COVID-19 total.

The DOH said it reclassified 37 survivors into deaths after validation, and deleted 118 duplicates, including 91 recoveries and one fatality.

The total excludes data from five laboratories which failed to submit their reports on time, the DOH added. These laboratories contributed an average of 0.8% of tested samples and 0.8% of positive individuals in the last 14 days.

The positivity rate, or percentage of tested people with positive results, increased from 25.6% based on tests on Aug. 29 to 26.4% based on 51,473 tests reported on Aug. 30. The rate has remained within the critical level of over 20% for over two weeks, indicating that the country has yet to ramp up its testing efforts.

According to U.S. nonprofit Covid Act Now, which is used by OCTA Research as reference for its projections, areas should aim for a positivity rate of below 3% to indicate adequate testing.

The World Health Organization, meanwhile, set the standard positivity rate to below 5% to show that the infection has been controlled.

The DOH said cases may still peak in the middle of this month, with the feared and highly contagious Delta variant possibly driving up the numbers.

The agency said it observed a "steep increase" in infections in the recent week. From Aug. 24 to 30, the DOH noted an average of 17,013 cases per day, up from 14,886 in the previous week.

OCTA Research fellow Guido David told CNN Philippines that the country may reach a new record-high of new single-day cases next week at 25,000 before going on a downward trend.