THE Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday, March 16, 2021, reported over 4,000 new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) for the fifth straight day.
In its case bulletin at 4 p.m. Tuesday, DOH listed 4,437 new infections, which raised the cumulative case count to 631,320.
Active cases increased further to 57,736, or 9.1 percent of the total.
There were 11 additional mortalities, raising the death toll to 12,848. The case fatality rate declined further to 2.04 percent.
There were 166 new recoveries, bringing the total recoveries to 560,736.
The daily positivity rate remained high at 11.2 percent as 2,786 out of 24,932 tested as of noon of March 15 yielded positive results.
Healthcare utilization rates further increased, especially in the National Capital Region (NCR), where the biggest increase in cases has been documented.
At the UP Philippine General Hospital in Manila, Covid-19 admissions jumped to 156, including one probable case, on March 15 from 102, with two probable cases, on March 7.
As of March 6, PGH has limited emergency room consultations and admissions of non-Covid patients to life/limb threatening emergency conditions, pregnant with imminent delivery and trauma.
During the weekly meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday, March 15, DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said two cities in the NCR were considered at critical risk while 12 were classified as high risk.
The risk classification is based on attack rates, or the proportion of Covid-19 cases in a population.
“Mayroon na pong dalawang rehiyon na nasa high risk ang kanila pong risk level classification. Ang ibig sabihin po nito ay either ‘yong kanila pong attack rate per 100,000 population ay lumagpas na po ng seven per 100,000, seven na kaso per 100,000 population or ‘yong kanila pong laki o itinaas ng porsyento ng kaso sa kasalukuyang dalawang linggo ay umabot na, lumagpas na po sa 200 percent kumpara noong nakaraang ikatlo at ika- apat na linggo,” Duque said.
According to the DOH Covid-19 tracker, three cities in Metro Manila (National Capital Region) have continued to post the highest number of new cases in the last 14 days to March 15 while Cavite Province has overtaken Cebu City.
Quezon City had 4,065 cases for the period, followed by Manila with 3,087, Pasay with 2,632, Cavite with 2,252, and Cebu City with 2,065 cases for the period.
The 14-day running total of new cases as of March 14 exceeded 20,000 in the NCR while Calabarzon, the most populous region in the country, overtook Central Visayas region which had occupied the second spot since January 2021.
As of March 15, NCR had 21,998 cases, followed by Calabarzon with 5,882 cases, Central Visayas with 5,238, Central Luzon with 3,348 and Cordillera with 1,597.
Duque said the overall healthcare utilization rates in the Cordillera Autonomous Region, NCR and Central Visayas have increased to 56 percent, 49 percent and 47 percent, respectively.
These were still within the safe zone, though.
But in the NCR, the DOH tracker showed that nearly 65 percent or 494 of the 765 intensive care unit (ICU) beds for Covid-19 patients were occupied on March 14.
Almost 59 percent of the isolation beds were also in use in the capital region. About 38 percent of the ward beds and mechanical ventilators were also in use on March 14. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)