Active cases lowest in over 10 weeks

MANILA (UPDATE)— The total number of COVID-19 patients in the Philippines who succumbed to the disease crossed the 20,000-mark on Tuesday with 36 additional fatalities, as the country also recorded nearly 4,000 new infections.

The country's death toll due to the virus climbed to 20,019. Its first fatality was recorded on Feb. 1 last year - a 44-year-old Chinese man who arrived from Wuhan, China and was tagged as the Philippines' second confirmed COVID-19 case.

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Tuesday's new fatalities, the lowest in over 7 weeks, according to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group (IRG), also included 10 cases first classified as recoveries, the Department of Health (DOH) noted.

ABS-CBN Data Analytics head Edson Guido said the country recorded some 7,000 deaths over the last 2 months. The death toll breached 13,000 last March 24.

Meanwhile, there were 3,972 newly reported COVID-19 cases, bringing the country's cumulative total to 1,188,672.

The DOH did not say whether the day's relatively fewer cases was due to the low testing output on Sunday.

Guido had said that new cases dip on Tuesdays and Wednesdays due to fewer laboratories operating over the weekend.

The latest COVID-19 case bulletin showed that there were 32,112 individuals who underwent testing that day, 13.1 percent of whom were found positive for the virus.

Of the total recorded infections, 48,201 or 4.1 percent are considered active.

The ABS-CBN IRG said the number of those still battling the disease on Tuesday is the lowest in more than 10 weeks or since March 14 this year when 46,549 active cases were logged.

The number of active cases reported previously has been adjusted for duplicates.

Recoveries also climbed to 1,120,452 with 4,659 fresh recuperations.

The total number of recoveries comprise 94.3 percent of the country's overall tally.

Ten laboratories failed to submit data on time.

As of Monday, the government was able to administer 4.3 million COVID-19 doses, over 3.318 million of which were first doses.

Almost 987,000 Filipinos, meanwhile, have received their 2 vaccine doses against the virus.

The Philippines, which began its nationwide inoculation program in March, has been using COVID-19 jabs from AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Sinovac, and Gamaleya Institute.

The country confirmed its first COVID-19 case on Jan. 30 last year in a Chinese woman who was the companion of the Philippines' first COVID-19 fatality.

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