FOR the second day in a row, over 300 cases that were tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
The Department of Health (DOH) also reclassified 117 recoveries to deaths, pushing the Covid-19 death toll past 23,000.
In its case bulletin Wednesday, June 16, 2021, the DOH listed 5,414 new infections, 158 additional deaths and 7,637 new recoveries.
The new infections brought the total Covid-19 case count to 1,332,832. Eleven duplicates, including seven cases that were listed as recoveries, were removed from the case count.
The 158 additional mortalities included 117 cases that were initially listed as recoveries. The Covid-19 death toll increased to 23,121 as of June 16. The case fatality rate remained at 1.73 percent.
Covid-19 deaths nationwide averaged 133 in the recent seven days from June 10 to 16, lower than the 147 daily average in the previous week from June 2 to 9.
The new recoveries reported on Wednesday raised the total recoveries to 1,253,541.
The DOH removed 375 cases that were previously counted as recoveries since these were validated to be active cases in hospitals or isolation facilities. Two cases were also removed from the count as these were found to have tested negative.
As there were more recoveries than new infections, the number of active cases was reduced to 56,170, including the 375 cases reclassified from recoveries. The active cases constitute 4.2 percent of the total case count.
The daily positivity rate on June 14 remained elevated at 13.7 percent. Testing output was low at only 36,744 as six laboratories failed to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.
The DOH also reclassified 304 cases listed as recoveries to active cases and 65 recoveries to deaths in its June 15 case bulletin. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)