(UPDATED) The Department of Health (DOH) reported more than 9,000 new coronavirus infections for the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday, March 30, 2021, pushing the number of active cases to a new high.
In its case bulletin at 4 p.m. Tuesday, the DOH listed 9,296 new cases, lower than the daily tally in the last four days, including the 10,016 infections on March 29.
These brought the number of active cases to a new record of 124,680, which make up 16.8 percent of the cumulative case count of 741,181.
The bulk, or 96 percent, of these active coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases have mild symptoms while 2.3 percent are asymptomatic and 0.39 percent are moderately ill.
Critical and severe cases comprise 0.6 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively. These have led to a steep increase in intensive care unit (ICU) utilization rates, DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said during the weekly meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday, March 29.
The daily positivity rate nationwide exceeded 20 percent, the highest for the country. As of noon of March 29, 20.4 percent of the 30,518 samples tested for Sars-CoV-2 yielded positive results.
The DOH case bulletin also listed five additional mortalities, raising the Covid-19 death toll to 13,191. The case fatality rate declined further to 1.78 percent as deaths remained low and new cases continued to soar.
There were 103 new recoveries, bringing the total to 603,310, or 81.4 percent of the cumulative case count.
In his report to Duterte on Monday, Duque blamed the upsurge in cases on poor compliance to minimum public health standards, poor implementation of prevention, detection, isolation, treatment and reintegration strategy, and the presence of Sars-CoV-2 variants.
As infections climbed, the healthcare utilization rate also increased.
He said Covid-19 capacity have to be increased to 50 percent in government hospitals and 30 percent in private hospitals.
Isolation and quarantine facilities for the mild and asymptomatic cases must also be increased to reach the target of one bed for every 1,000 persons and prevent hospitals from getting overwhelmed.
Duque also reminded local government units (LGUs) to limit home quarantine to just 10 percent of the close contacts of a Covid-19 patient.
As of March 28, the number of health facilities with critical Covid-19 occupancy rates of more than 85 percent in the National Capital Region (NCR) has increased to 47 while those at high risk inched up to 22.
There were also 13 facilities at moderate risk and 72 which were still in the safe zone.
Regionwide, more than three of every four ICU beds for Covid-19, or 76 percent, were occupied in the NCR as of March 28 while nearly 70 percent of the isolation beds and about 59 percent of the ward beds were in use.
More than half, or 57 percent, of the mechanical ventilators in the region were in use.
In Cagayan Valley, one of every four hospitals was classified as critical. As of March 28, 16 health facilities had critical occupancy rates, 10 at high risk, 8 at moderate risk and 30 were still in the safe zone.
Regionwide, 67 percent of the ICU beds for Covid-19 patients were occupied as were 65 percent and nearly 79 percent of the isolation and ward beds, respectively, were in use.
Nearly 51 percent, or 33 out of 65, mechanical ventilators were being used.
The National Capital Region (NCR) continued to account for the highest number of new cases as of March 29.
In the last 14 days, the DOH tracker showed the NCR had 54,354 new cases, followed by Calabarzon (16,092), Central Luzon (9,068), Central Visayas (4,473) and Cagayan Valley (3,218).
Among the cities and provinces, Quezon City had the highest 14-day running total of 10,809 as of March 29, followed by Manila with 8,473, Cavite with 5,771, Bulacan with 5,404 and Rizal with 4,552.
Nationwide, cases first surpassed the 2020 peak on March 19, when the DOH announced 7,103 infections. Cases have since accelerated, breaching 8,000 on March 22, 9,000 on March 26 and 10,000 on March 29.
On March 27, the partial case count for March 2020 reached 136,370, surpassing the 127,465 in the entire month of August 2020, the highest monthly tally for 2020.
The seven-day running total in late March has been surpassing the case count for the entire months of November and December 2020, and January and February 2021.
On March 16 to 22, total cases reached 44,992, higher than the 42,434 cases in the entire month of December. The seven-day total for March 19 to 25 reached 52,184, exceeding the 50,901 cases in November 2020, 42,434 cases in December 2020, 51,554 cases in January 2021, and 50,734 in February 2021.
In the last seven days from March 24 to 30, cumulative cases reached 63,659, just a few thousands shy of the October 2020 record of 69,035 and equivalent to almost half of the 127,465 in August 2020. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)