37,000 new Covid-19 cases, over 33,000 recoveries in PH

THE Philippines recorded again Monday, January 17, 2022, one of its highest single-day Covid-19 cases tally with 37,070 additional infections along with over 33,000 recoveries.

The Department of Health (DOH), in its 4 p.m. Monday bulletin, said the 37,070 new cases further raised the country’s total case count to 3,242,374.

Of the confirmed cases, nine percent or 290,938 people have remained sick.

The DOH said of the active cases, 9,187 were asymptomatic, 277,020 were mild, 2,947 moderate, 1,480 severe and 304 critical.

It also said that 36,001 of the 37,070 new infections reported Monday occurred within the past 14 days.

Metro Manila remained as the region with the highest number of new cases at 13,061, followed by Calabarzon with 9,048 and Central Luzon with 4,173 more infections.

The 33,940 additional recoveries, meanwhile, pushed the total number of people who have survived Covid-19 to 2,898,507 or 89.4 percent.

The DOH also reported 23 new mortalities that raised the death toll to 52,929 (1.63 percent).

It noted that 20 of the 23 deaths happened this January, one in September 2021, one in April and one in September 2020.

The DOH said there was a delay in reporting of Covid-19 cases due to “late encoding of death information to CovidKaya.”

“This issue is currently being coordinated with the Epidemiology and Surveillance Units to ensure information is up to date,” the agency said.

The country’s positivity rate remained high at 46 percent, based on the 77,410 samples tested last January 15.

As to the hospitalization rate, the DOH said 49 percent of intensive care unit (ICU) beds nationwide have been utilized, but the utilization rate in Metro Manila remained at 58 percent.

Isolation beds were 47 percent and 48 percent utilized nationwide and in Metro Manila, respectively. The ward beds utilization rate stood at 50 percent nationwide and 62 percent in Metro Manila.

The DOH said Monday’s data did not include output from 12 laboratories, which failed to submit their report last January 15. These laboratories contributed on average 5.1 percent of all samples tested and 5.1 percent of all individuals who tested positive for the virus.

On Saturday, January 15, the DOH logged the country’s all-time high of 39,004 Covid-19 cases nationwide. (LMY)