THE Department of Health (DOH) announced for the second straight day below 20,000 new cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19), with 15,789 infections added to the country's tally.

The positivity rate also went down to 35.8 percent from Tuesday's (January 25) 37.2 percent, based on the 48,725 samples tested last January 24.

The DOH said the 15,789 new cases announced Wednesday brought the country's total caseload to 3,475,293, of which 230,410 or 6.6 percent are active or currently sick.

The health department recorded on Tuesday, January 25, 17,677 additional infections.

It said Wednesday that of the active infections in the country, 6,902 patients were asymptomatic, 218,711 were mild cases, 2,982 were moderate, 1,507 were severe and 308 were in critical condition.

The recovery rate stood at 91.8 percent, with 32,712 new recoveries logged, raising the total to 3,191,219.

The death toll increased to 53,664 with 66 new mortalities. The fatality rate stood at 1.54 percent.

The DOH said three laboratories were not able to submit their output and these contributed on average 0.1 percent of samples tested and positive results. (LMY)