THE Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday, February 20, 2021, reported 239 deaths from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), bringing the pandemic death toll in the Philippines past 12,000 and the case fatality rate (CFR) back to the July 31, 2020 level.
Saturday’s death toll was the highest in a single day since the 259 reported on September 14, 2020, more than five months ago.
DOH officials, however, have explained that the deaths reported in a single day did not necessarily occur on that day due to delayed reporting or backlogs in the verification process.
The cumulative death toll since February 2020 went up to 12,068, or 2.16 percent of the cumulative case load in the country. The last time the CFR reached 2.16 percent was on July 31, 2020, based on the DOH case bulletins.
The DOH also reported on Saturday 2,240 new cases of infection, the highest since the 2,245 on January 27, 2021.
These brought the total caseload in the Philippines to 559,288, or almost 560,000.
There were 504 new recoveries, less than a fourth of the 2,230 new infections. The total recoveries increased to 513,120.
There remained 34,100 active cases in isolation facilities and hospitals, or 6.1 percent of the total case count.
The positivity rate in the past 24 hours until noon of February 19 was high at 6.8 percent as 1,652 out of 24,165 tests for Sars-CoV-2 yielded positive results. (Marites Villamor-Ilano with HDT / SunStar Philippines)