A woman walks past a COVID-19 pandemic themed mural at an under pass in Makati CIty on July 18, 2022. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News
MANILA (UPDATED) — The Philippines tallied 28,008 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.
From Aug. 8 to 14, the country logged an average of 4,001 infections per day, up 3 percent compared to the previous week, according to the DOH's latest bulletin.
This is the highest number of cases logged in a single week since Feb. 7 to 13, 2022, when 28,280 cases were reported, according to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group.
This is also the first time in 26 weeks that daily average cases reached 4,000. The last time this happened was in the week of Feb. 7 to 13, with daily average cases of 4,040.
Of the additional infections during the week, 101 were severe and critical.
A total of 822 or 9.6 percent of COVID-19 patients in hospitals were in severe and critical condition as of Sunday, said the DOH.
The figure is higher than the previous week's 772 severe and critical patients who comprised 9.3 percent of COVID-19 hospital admissions at the time.
This is the third straight week that severe and critical cases have accounted for more than 9 percent of the total COVID-19 admissions. The proportion was at 9.2 percent in the week of July 25 to 31, and 9.3 percent in the week of Aug. 1 to 7, the ABS-CBN IRG said.
Some 719 or 28 percent of 2,571 intensive care unit (ICU) beds for COVID-19 patients were occupied as of Sunday.
This is the fourth straight week that the ICU utilization rate remained above 20 percent, according to the ABS-CBN IRG. The upward trend in the COVID-19 ICU bed occupancy has continued over the last 9 weeks, it said.
During the past week, the DOH said it verified 229 more COVID-related fatalities, citing late encoding of death information. The deaths occurred in the following months:
- 98 in August 2022
- 129 in July 2022
- 1 in June 2022
- 1 in September 2021
This is the highest number of deaths logged in a single week in 18 weeks, or since April 4 to 10, 2022, when the DOH reported 428 deaths, the ABS-CBN IRG said.
NEW DAILY DEATHS OVER 40 FOR 3RD STRAIGHT DAY
Later in the day, the DOH reported a daily addition of 3,484 cases and 42 deaths. These brought the total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country to 3,835,422, and the death toll to 61,078 as of Monday.
This is the third straight day that new fatalities were over 40, ABS-CBN Data Analytics Team head Edson Guido said.
Of the new cases, 1,131 are from Metro Manila.
Active cases stood at 38,982, while recoveries stood at 3,735,362.
Some 72 million people have been fully vaccinated against the respiratory disease, of whom 17 million have received their booster shots.