PH's total active COVID-19 cases exceeds 287,000 in highest-ever tally
The country's total active COVID-19 cases have reached 287,856, the highest total active infections ever since the onset of the pandemic, as the number of new cases continues to grow at a high clip, even as the Department of Health notes that a majority of infections are mild cases.
Ngayong 4 PM, Enero 16, 2022, ang Department of Health ay nakapagtala ng 37,154 na karagdagang kaso ng COVID-19. Samantala ay mayroon namang naitalang 30,037 na gumaling at 50 na pumanaw.
— Department of Health (@DOHgovph) January 16, 2022
Sa kabuuang bilang ng mga naitalang kaso sa bansa, 9.0% (287,856) ang aktibong kaso, pic.twitter.com/NVUKvUmwon
The latest tally surpassed last Jan. 15's total active case count of 280,813. As before, the DOH reported that 98.4% of the cases are mild and asymptomatic.
It's also the country's fifth consecutive day of its active case count surpassing the 200,000 mark. It last happened on April 17, 2021, when it logged 203,710 cases.
The DOH also reported 37,154 new COVID-19 infections today, Jan. 16, in the country's fifth straight day of new cases above the 30,000 mark.
The number was almost at par with Jan. 14's tally of 37,207, but a slight decline from Jan. 15's highest-ever 39,004 new COVID-19 cases since the pandemic started.
Of over 81,000 individuals tested as of Jan. 14, the DOH's Jan. 16 COVID-19 bulletin showed that 47.4% of them turned out positive for the virus. It's the second highest positivity rate ever, following last Jan. 13 bulletin which displayed a positivity rate of 47.9% among over 78,000 individuals as of Jan. 11.
It marked five straight days of the country's daily positivity rate above 45% and 10 straight days above 40%.
Nationwide caseload, meanwhile, has reached 3.2 million.
Over 30,000 patients have beat COVID-19, bringing total recoveries to over 2.86 million.
Fifty individuals, meanwhile, succumbed to the disease, as the death toll stood at over 52,900.
As of Jan. 14, the DOH said all laboratories were operational, though 12 labs failed to submit data.
The 12 labs account for 2.7% of tested samples and 3.4% of positive results in the last 14 days, it added.