Philippines confirms over 37k new COVID cases, tally now over 3.2 million

MANILA, January 17 ------ The Philippines confirmed 37,154 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the country’s total to 3,205,396. This was the third-highest single-day tally since the pandemic began. The positivity rate was also at 47.4 percent, which was the second-highest since testing data became available. The Department of Health meanwhile also reported 30,037 new recoveries, pushing the total number of Filipinos who recovered from the disease to 2,864,633. This means that the country has a total of 287,856 active cases as of 4 p.m. Sunday.

Fifty new deaths from COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the country’s death toll from the disease to 52,907. The Philippines breached the 3.2 million mark in total confirmed COVID cases just 2 days after breaching the 3.1 million mark.

An independent research group said COVID-19 cases in the Philippines would not reach their peak "any time soon" since the regions outside Metro Manila have just started to experience a sharp increase in new infections. Other regions have lagged NCR in terms of vaccination.

Source: news.abs-cbn.com