Philippines reports 2,196 new COVID-19 cases

MANILA, February 18 ------ The Philippines on Thursday reported 2,196 new COVID-19 cases, the fourth consecutive day the tally remained below 3,000, data from the health department showed. The positivity rate was at 9.7 percent, based on samples of 29,392 individuals on Feb. 15, Tuesday, according to the latest Department of Health bulletin. Of the newly reported cases, 2,078 or 95 percent occurred within the recent 14 days. Metro Manila (358 cases), Western Visayas (307 cases) and Calabarzon (214 cases) were the top regions with cases in the recent two weeks.

The number of fresh infections is the second lowest daily tally so far this year, following 2,010 cases that were announced on Feb. 15, according to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group. This is also the 10th straight day of daily cases remained below 5,000, it said. The Philippines has so far tallied a total of 3,646,793 cases, of which 66,588 or 1.8 percent remain active. This is the lowest number of active infections since Jan. 6, when 56,561 active cases were reported, the research group said.

Of those still battling the illness, 60,848 (91.38 percent) were mild cases, 1,090 (1.64 percent) were asymptomatic, 2,913 (4.37 percent) were moderate cases, 1,428 (2.14 percent) were severe cases, and 309 (0.46 percent) were critical cases. COVID-related deaths increased by 107, resulting in a total of 55,330 fatalities. This is the highest daily tally since Feb. 14, when 164 deaths were announced, the ABS-CBN IRG said. Of the newly-reported deaths, 70 occurred this month, 19 last month, 4 in December, 8 in October, 3 in September, 2 in August, and 1 in June.

There were 4,409 more recoveries, raising the total number of recuperations to 3,524,875. Seventy-nine cases previously tagged as recuperations were reclassified as deaths after final validation, the DOH said. Three laboratories, which contribute on average 0.8 percent of samples tested and 1.9 percent of positive cases, were unable to submit their data, the DOH said. The intensive care unit (ICU) bed utilization rate in Metro Manila and nationwide was at 31 percent each.

Government will slowly transition to the new normal or Alert Level 1, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said as doctors expressed concern that it was easing restrictions too soon. "We have metrics that determines what alert level we are. These will show us if our cases will already be manageable. The fear of doctors would be understandable," she said. "The mindset would be we will transition. We're not going to open up sectors drastically...we need to be able to slowly transition into new normal. We need to go on and move on with our lives."

Face masks will be the last to go in transitioning to the new normal, Vergeire said. "For us in the medical field and also our experts, our vision would be the mask would be the last to go. The mask protects us from a lot of diseases," she said.

Source: news.abs-cbn.com