AFTER posting the highest number of coronavirus infections in nearly three months, the Department of Health (DOH) reported fewer cases on Thursday, January 28, 2021, although these still exceeded 1,000.

In its case bulletin issued at 4 p.m. Thursday, the DOH confirmed 1,169 new cases, which increased the total case count to 519,575.

Deaths from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) continued to accelerate, with 71 additional mortalities counted on Thursday to bring the death toll to 10,552.

The case fatality rate (CFR) continued to increase, hitting 2.03 percent.

Officials earlier attributed the steady increase in the CFR to efforts to harmonize DOH’s mortality data with those of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

There were 60 new recoveries, pushing the total number of recoveries to 475,596.

Of the total case count, 33,427 or 6.4 percent were listed as active cases.

Among the new infections, meanwhile, were 57 from Quezon City, 54 from Isabela, and 42 each from Manila, Davao City and Rizal.

Cebu City, which posted the highest new case count nationwide for two consecutive days, was no longer on the list of cities and provinces with high numbers of new cases.

Tests conducted on January 27 reached 26,174, of which 1,298 or 5.0 percent yielded positive results. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)