THE Department of Health (DOH) on Monday, January 18, 2021, reported 2,163 infections, the highest since November 8, 2020 and the fourth above-2,000 daily tally in the recent eight days.
These brought the total case count in the Philippines to 502,736, of which 26,839 were considered active cases.
Davao City posted the highest number of new cases in five out of the last eight days from January 11 to 18.
On Monday, DOH reported 134 new infections in Davao City, followed by 100 from Cagayan province, 99 from Quezon City, 93 from Leyte and 75 from Cavite.
There were 14 additional mortalities from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), raising the death toll to 9,909. The case fatality rate declined to 1.97 percent from 1.98 percent in the previous two consecutive days.
The DOH case bulletin posted only two recoveries on Monday, a day after reporting the lowest "mass recovery" on Sunday. Total recoveries reached 465,988 as of January 18.
A total of 19,210 individuals were tested for Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, on January 17. Of this number, 891 or 4.6 percent yielded positive results.
Coronavirus cases had been declining since the peak in August 2020, when new infections averaged over 4,000 a day.
These went down to around 3,000 a day in September and further to over 2,000 in October.
The cases declined to an average of 1,696 a day in November and further to 1,368 a day in December.
In the week from January 11 to 17, 2021, however, new cases jumped to an average of 1,841 a day.
The 2,163 new infections reported on Monday were the highest in 71 days from November 9, 2020 to January 18, 2021, based on the DOH case bulletins issued daily.
New cases breached 2,000 again on January 11, when the DOH reported 2,052 infections. Over 2,000 cases were also recorded on January 15 and 16. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)