Philippines records 577 new COVID-19 cases, 240 new deaths

MANILA, March 21 ------ The Philippines recorded 577 additional COVID-19 cases on Sunday, based on the government's tracker. Of the fresh infections, 229 are from Metro Manila. The country's total cases climbed to 3,674,286 of which, 45,201 are active. ABS-CBN Data Analytics Team head Edson Guido said the number of active infections is the lowest since Jan. 5.

The Department of Health also logged 240 new deaths due to the disease, raising the total to 58,263 The positivity rate for the week of March 13 to 19 is 2.7 percent, which is lower than the 3.2 percent recorded the week earlier.

The DOH has stopped releasing daily COVID-19 bulletins as it seeks to "change how people perceive and how people look at the situation" two years into the pandemic. The bulletins are released weekly, and mention severe and critical cases only, as well as ICU bed utilization and vaccination rates, among others. Other relevant data, though, are still accessible from the COVID-19 tracker in the DOH website.

Source: news.abs-cbn.com