THE Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday, February 17, 2021, reported 1,184 new cases of coronavirus infection, less than 1,500 for the second consecutive day.

As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, the total coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) case count in the Philippines has gone up to 553,424.

This number includes 29,814 active cases that are still in isolation or in hospitalsl, 11,577 deaths and 512,033 recoveries.

After reporting less than 50 deaths from Covid-19 for five days in a row, DOH on Wednesday listed 53 additional mortalities. The case fatality rate remained at 2.09 percent.

There were 271 new recoveries, bringing the total recoveries to 512,033.

As of February 16, Cebu City and Cebu Province still had the highest number of new cases in the last 14 days based on the date of onset of illness or collection of specimen.

According to the DOH tracker, Cebu City had 2,166 new cases for the period while Cebu Province had 1,008 new cases.

They were followed by Quezon City with 907 new cases, Davao City with 748 and Manila with 696.

Among the regions, the National Capital Region (or Metro Manila) continued to post the highest number of new cases for the same period at 4,731. NCR, with nearly 13 million people (2015 census), has the second biggest population among the regions.

Central Visayas followed with 4,262. Other regions with rising cases were Calabarzon (1,959), Davao Region (1,397) and Central Luzon (1,259). (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)