Active cases lowest since Mar. 10

MANILA (UPDATE) — The Philippines on Wednesday recorded 5,310 more COVID-19 infections, the highest announced in 4 days, pushing the country's cumulative total to nearly 1.2 million.

Of the 1,193,976 total confirmed cases in the country, 46,037 or 3.9 percent are active.

The ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group (IRG) said the number of those still battling the disease on Wednesday is the lowest in 11 weeks or since Mar. 10, when the country logged 42,906 active cases.

The number of active infections recorded in previous days has been adjusted for duplicates.

The ABS-CBN Data Analytics team had said new cases dip during Tuesdays and Wednesdays due to the fewer number of laboratories operating over the weekend.

The virus claimed 150 more lives, the highest since May 22, bringing the country's death toll to 20,169.

Of the new fatalities, more than half or 86 cases were initially tagged as recoveries but were reclassified as deaths after the Department of Health's (DOH) revalidation.

Recoveries climbed by 7,408 to 1,127,770. This accounts for 94.5 percent of the country's overall tally.

The ABS-CBN IRG noted that Wednesday's additional recuperations is considered the highest in 4 days or since May 22 when 7,981 recoveries were registered.

The DOH said that of the 36,630 individuals tested last Monday, 13.5 percent were found to be carriers of the virus.

Six cases considered as "duplicates" have been excluded from the cumulative total. Four of these were recoveries.

Four laboratories failed to submit data on time, the DOH said. These contributed an estimated 1.1 percent of the overall samples tested and 1.7 percent individuals who were found positive of the virus in the past 2 weeks.

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Earlier in the day, the health department said 85 percent of the estimated 1.7 million health workers in the country have been vaccinated against COVID-19, as the country continues to ramp up its inoculation program that stared March 1.

• 85 pct of health workers in PH vaccinated vs COVID-19, says DOH

As of Tuesday, almost 3.5 million people in the Philippines have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 1,029,061 are already fully vaccinated.

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The government aims to vaccinate at least 58 million Filipinos by year-end to achieve herd immunity.