MANILA (UPDATE) — The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday reported 1,097 confirmed COVID-19 cases, pushing the country’s total infections to 476,916.

The day's low figure was attributed to the “temporary unavailability” of the agency’s COVID-19 Document Repository System (CDRS) on Friday, leading to the failure of 15 laboratories to submit results.

“This was resolved immediately, and while the impact has been minimal, we are coordinating with all involved laboratories to ensure that all results are uploaded as soon as possible,” the DOH noted.

A total of 33 laboratories, on the other hand, declared no operations on Jan. 1, the health department pointed out.

Topping the list of areas with the most number of cases are Davao Del Norte with 65, Davao City with 60, Laguna with 53, Batangas with 48, and Cavite with 43.

The health department recorded 5 new coronavirus-related fatalities. The death toll stood at 9,253.

Meanwhile, there were 47 new recoveries, raising the total number of recovered patients to 439,942. Recoveries account for 92.2 percent of the total recorded cases.

A total of 27,721 or 5.8 percent of the total number of cases are considered active infections. The DOH said 92 percent of patients are asymptomatic or exhibiting mild symptoms, while 4.8 percent are critically ill.

Of the 6,227 people who were tested on Friday noon, 456 or 7.3 percent tested positive for the disease, according to the DOH.

A duplicate was also removed from the total case count, according to the health department.

The health department also said Saturday the new, more contagious variant of COVID-19 that has spread from the United Kingdom to several countries, including Singapore and Vietnam, has not been detected in the country.

• READ: None yet in PH: DOH to check COVID-19 specimens from places with new UK variant

Low number of tests

ABS-CBN News Data Analytics Head Edson Guido also noted the low number of tests in the past week, resulting in the low number of newly-confirmed cases.

Testing statistics on December 31:

- 15,266 tests, below 30k for a week ⬇️
- 1,066 positives reported by labs
- 7.4% daily positivity rate, highest since Nov 4 ⚠️
- 8.4% cumulative positivity rate
- 12 testing backlogs

- 536,019 positives (Dec 31)
- 475,820 confirmed (Jan 1) pic.twitter.com/tZu3873av8

— Edson (@EdsonCGuido) January 2, 2021

The slump in COVID-19 numbers has also been attributed to fewer people being tested and some laboratories closing for the holidays.

• READ: PH virus tally near 470,000; number of tests falls as labs close for holidays

Guido pointed out that the 7.4 percent daily positivity rate on Dec. 31 was the highest since Nov. 4 and the 15,266 tests conducted on the same day was the 7th-straight day of less than 30,000 tests.

More than 84 million people globally have contracted COVID-19, according to a running tally by the US-based Johns Hopkins University, with the US, India, Brazil, Russia, and France having the highest total cases as of this posting.

Since the outbreak in China began in December 2019, over 1.8 million people have died while 47.3 million have recovered from the disease, the JHU tally showed.

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