THE Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday, April 18, 2021, reported nearly 11,000 new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) and 150 additional deaths, pushing the death toll in the Philippines to almost 16,000.
There were 72,607 recoveries, the highest “mass recovery” that the DOH announces every Sunday based on its time-based recovery scheme which declares a coronavirus-positive individual as clinically recovered after more than 14 days of no Covid-19 symptoms.
Globally, infections exceeded 140 million and deaths topped 3.0 million as of Sunday, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
The Philippines has climbed five notches to the 27th spot among countries with the highest number of infections, the Johns Hopkins tracker also showed.
For nearly three weeks since March 28, the seven-day moving average of Covid-19 cases in the Philippines has exceeded 10,000.
The 10,098 new cases reported on Sunday brought the cumulative case count to 936,133, of which 141,089 or 15.1 percent remained active.
Active cases refer to patients who are still in hospitals or isolation facilities.
In nine out of the last 10 days from April 9 to 18, Covid-19 deaths exceeded 100 a day. The highest single-day death toll was recorded at 401 on April 9.
The additional deaths raised the death toll in the country to 15,960. The case fatality rate declined to 1.7 percent from the previous day’s 1.71 percent as the case count continued its steep climb.
The additional 72,607 recoveries, meanwhile, brought the total to 779,084, or 83.2 percent of the cumulative caseload.
The daily positivity rate remained elevated at 17.2 percent, but testing output dropped to 34,546 as of noon of April 17. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)