AFTER three consecutive days of recording over 14,000 new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) a day, the Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday, August 17, 2021, reported a decline in new infections as testing output dropped.

In its case bulletin, DOH listed 10,035 new cases, 96 additional deaths and 10,858 new recoveries.

Six laboratories were unable to submit their testing output on Sunday, August 15, resulting in a lower testing output of 38,243. Of these, 22.2 percent yielded positive results.

The new cases brought the cumulative case count to 1,765,675, of which 105,787 were active cases.

The DOH said 206 duplicates, including 201 recoveries, were removed from the case count.

The additional deaths, which included 39 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries but reclassified as deaths, raised the Covid-19 death toll to 30,462. The case fatality rate remained at 1.73 percent.

With the additional recoveries, the total number of patients who have been declared as recovered increased to 1,629,426. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)