THE Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday, August 21, 2021, reported over 16,000 new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), the second highest daily tally, and nearly 400 deaths, the second highest daily death toll since the pandemic started.

The highest daily count in the Philippines was 17,231 on Friday, August 20.

In its case bulletin, the DOH reported 16,694 new infections, 398 additional deaths and 15,805 new recoveries.

The new cases brought the total to 1,824,051, of which 123,935 were active cases, of which 0.7 percent were critical, 1.2 percent were severe, 0.9 percent were moderate, 93.5 percent were mild, and 3.7 percent were asymptomatic.

Four laboratories were unable to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System (CDRS) last August 19.

The additional deaths raised the death toll to 31,596 and the case fatality rate remained at 1.73 percent.

There are now a total 1,668,520 recoveries. (HDT / SunStar Philippines)