PH positivity rate rises to 14 percent

MANILA (UPDATED) — The Philippines on Thursday confirmed 7,217 more COVID-19 infections, the highest in 5 days, as the health department reported a continued spike in fresh cases outside Metro Manila.

The country's total recorded COVID-19 cases climbed to 1,247,899, of which 55,790 or 4.5 percent are considered active infections, based on the Department of Health's (DOH) latest bulletin.

According to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group, the day's active cases is the highest in nearly 3 weeks or since May 14, when the agency logged 57,286 patients battling the disease.

The number of active cases has been adjusted for duplicates.

The country's death toll due to the virus increased to 21,357 with 199 newly reported fatalities.

These include 141 cases first classified as recovered but turned out as deaths after the DOH's final validation.

The ABS-CBN IRG said Thursday's additional number of deaths is the highest in a week or since May 27, when DOH recorded 210.

Recoveries, meanwhile, rose by 3,483 to 1,170,752.

This is the lowest in 6 days or since May 28, when the DOH reported 3,017 recuperations, the ABS-CBN IRG said.

The total number of recoveries comprises 93.8 percent of the Philippines' overall virus tally.

The ABS-CBN Data Analytics team noted that the day's positivity rate went up to 14 percent, from Wednesday's 12.8 percent.

This is based from the results of 44,197 individuals who underwent testing for COVID-19 on Tuesday.

Thirty-four duplicates have been excluded from the total case count. The DOH said 16 of those were recoveries.

Four testing laboratories failed to submit data on time.

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ICU OCCUPANCY

The capital region's intensive care unit bed allocation for COVID-19 patients is at 49 percent, down by 1 percent from Wednesday, the latest bulletin showed.

Nationwide, this figure is higher at 56 percent, as some health facilities in Mindanao have already declared critical ICU capacity this week.

One of the major referral hospitals in Eastern Visayas also said their COVID-19 beds are fully-occupied.

• Eastern Visayas records 276 new COVID-19 cases, highest daily tally

Earlier in the day, the health department said Mindanao already surpassed the number of active cases in the capital region and the rest of Luzon.

Health Epidemiology Bureau Director Alethea De Guzman said that while Cagayan and Central Luzon "have the highest cases and fastest incline," a spike in new cases was also observed in Davao City and the Zamboanga region.

• Mindanao outpaces Luzon in speed of COVID-19 spread, says DOH

De Guzman attributed this to the local presence of COVID-19 variants and the supposed non-compliance of the public with minimum health protocols.

As of Saturday, the DOH said there were 26 active carriers of COVID-19 variants.

• READ: DOH logs new COVID-19 variant cases in PH; only 26 active