THE Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday, March 27, 2021, reported more than 9,000 new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) for the second day in a row.
With these new cases, the partial case count for March climbed to 136,370, surpassing the 127,465 cases recorded in the entire month of August 2020.
The 9,595 new cases also raised the number of active cases to a new record high of 118,122, mostly mild cases.
The active cases, referring to patients in hospitals and isolation facilities, constitute 16.6 percent of the country’s 712,442 cumulative caseload as of March 27.
The daily positivity rate remained elevated at 16.2 percent. A total of 34,101 samples were tested as of noon of March 26.
The DOH case bulletin also reported 10 additional mortalities, bringing the Covid-19 death toll to 13,150. The case fatality rate declined further to 1.85 percent.
There were 481 new recoveries, increasing the total to 581,161.
Two more health facilities entered the critical level in the National Capital Region (NCR), where at least half of the new cases originated.
As of March 25, there were 41 facilities with critical Covid-19 utilization rates of over 85 percent, 24 at high risk and 15 at moderate risk in Metro Manila. The number of facilities that were still in the safe zone decreased to 72, the DOH tracker showed.
Covid-19 cases in the Philippines first peaked in August 2020, with the highest single-day count recorded at 6,958 on August 10.
Transmission slowed down after August, with new cases going down to a daily average of as low as 1,368 in December 2020, but started to rise again in January 2021.
In the last 14 days to March 26, Quezon City had the highest running total of 9,456, followed by Manila (7,312), Cavite (4,920), Bulacan (4,534) and Rizal (3,839).
Among the regions, Metro Manila or NCR had the highest 14-day running total of 46,969, followed by Calabarzon with 13,519, Central Luzon with 7,491, Central Visayas with 4,862 and Cagayan Valley with 2,674. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / HDT / SunStar Philippines)