THE Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday, May 16, 2021, reported less than 6,000 new coronavirus infections as testing output was also low.

In its case bulletin, DOH confirmed 5,790 new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), which brought the cumulative case count to 1,143,963.

New cases have been declining since mid-April, when the seven-day moving average reached a peak of more than 10,000.

Based on the DOH case bulletins, new cases averaged 6,000 a day in the last seven days from May 10 to 16, more than 25 percent lower than the 8,200 seven-day average for the week from April 26 to May 2.

DOH also reported 140 additional mortalities, the highest in the last seven days.

These raised the Covid-19 death toll to 19,191. The case fatality rate increased to 1.68 percent.

There were 7,541 new recoveries, bringing the total to 1,069,868, or 93.5 percent of the total Covid-19 count in the country.

With recoveries exceeding new infections, the number of active cases declined further to 54,904.

The positivity rate remained high at 13.2 percent out of the 36,318 samples tested on May 14.

Testing output averaged only 41,409 a day in the last seven days from May 10 to 16, lower by about 5.0 percent than the 43,664 daily average from May 2 to 9.

The National Capital Region (NCR) continued to post the highest two-week running total, but the number has gone down to 20,828 as of May 15.

NCR is followed by Calabarzon with 14,180 cases in the last 14 days to May 15, Central Luzon with 9,570, Western Visayas with 4,384 and Cagayan Valley with 4,171.

Among the cities and provinces, Quezon City also continued to post the highest two-week total as of May 15 at 4,697, followed by Cavite with 4,123, Laguna with 3,493, Bulacan with 3,091 and Batangas with 2,778.

Globally, more than 162.5 million people have contracted Sars-CoV-2 and 3.37 million had died, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center tracker. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)