MANILA -- The Philippines on Tuesday reported 356 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest daily tally since July last year, bringing the country's total to 2,835,345, the Department of Health said.
The number of additional infections is the lowest since July 2 last year when the DOH announced 252, according to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group, citing DOH data adjusted for duplicates. The daily tally of cases has remained below 1,000 for each of the past 14 days.
The DOH said positivity rate stood at 1.4 percent, based on test results of samples taken from 24,360 individuals on Sunday, Dec. 5. It is the second lowest since data became available in April 2020, said ABS-CBN Data Analytics Head Edson Guido.
Of the country's cumulative total cases, 13,026 or 0.5 percent are active infections, the latest DOH bulletin showed.
This is the lowest in one year and a half, or since May 30 last year when 12,342 active cases were logged by the DOH, based on adjusted data, noted the ABS-CBN IRG.
There were also 92 new fatalities, leading to an overall death toll of 49,591. The additional tally is the lowest in five days, or since Dec. 2 when the DOH announced 40 deaths, the research group said.
The agency clarified that of the 92, only three deaths occurred this month. There is still late encoding of death information to COVIDKaya, its data repository system, the DOH said.
Total recoveries, meanwhile, increased by 871 to 2,772,728.
There were 87 cases previously tagged as recoveries that were reclassified as deaths after final validation, according to DOH.
Six duplicates and 159 cases found to have tested negative were also removed from the total case count, it added.
The DOH said two laboratories were not operational last Sunday, while six others were not able to submit their data, the DOH said.
Intensive care unit bed utilization in Metro Manila and across the country were at 29 percent and 26 percent, respectively.
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