PH reports 9,227 new COVID-19 cases and over 19,000 add'l recoveries

MANILA (UPDATE) — The Philippines on Wednesday reported 9,227 new COVID-19 cases and over 19,000 additional recoveries.

The country's total recorded cases climbed to 962,307, of which, 116,434 or 12.1 percent are active, the Department of Health said. 

Eight testing laboratories failed to submit results on time, while a laboratory did not operate on Sunday, said the DOH. 

Recoveries increased by 19,699 to 829,608, accounting for 86.2 percent of total recorded cases.

The new recoveries announced on Wednesday is the 12th highest figure announced in a single day, according to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group. 

Since Sunday, the country has been logging thousands of patients who recuperated from COVID-19 as, according to the DOH, a shift to daily, time-based recovery tagging had been made, veering away from the weekly "mass recoveries."

• READ: COVID-19: ‘Mass recovery’ tagging now daily in bid to address skewed data, says DOH

The virus, meanwhile, claimed 124 more lives, raising the death toll due to 16,265. 

Of those still battling the disease, 96.7 percent are experiencing mild symptoms, while 1.3 percent are asymptomatic. 

Those severely ill account for 0.8 percent, and those in critical condition, 0.6 percent. The remaining 0.52 percent of the active cases are experiencing moderate symptoms.

Out of the 37,235 individuals who underwent testing for COVID-19 on Monday, 19.5 percent were found positive for the disease. 

The DOH said the testing data in the COVID-19 bulletin would reflect the results collated in the past 2 days, to "minimize the confusion arising from reporting incomplete data." 

ABS-CBN Data Analytics head Edson Guido said this means that the agency would now report testing results done for the whole day, as data shown previously in the bulletin was as of noon the day before.

Meanwhile, a total of 26 duplicates, 14 recoveries of which were recoveries, have been removed from the cumulative tally of cases.

Thirty-six cases initially classified as recoveries were reclassified also as fatalities after the agency's final validation.

To date, more than 1.3 million Filipinos have received their first vaccine dose against the coronavirus since its rollout in March, still far from the government target of 70 million by the end of the year to achieve herd immunity.

The Philippines confirmed its first COVID-19 case on Jan. 30 last year in a Chinese woman who arrived from Wuhan City, China where the disease is believed to have first emerged in late 2019.

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