JUST three days after posting a new record in COVID-19 daily infections, the Department of Health (DOH) tallied another new high with 18,332 new COVID-19 cases today, much higher than yesterday’s 16,044 count, according to the latest DOH COVID-19 Case Bulletin issued today, August 23, 2021.
With the additional cases today, the total number of COVID-19 infections in the country is now at 1,857,646.
Also, active cases continued to shoot up with 130,350 from yesterday’s 125,900 count. Active cases or patients are those undergoing treatment in government hospitals and temporary quarantine facilities.
A total of 151 COVID-19 deaths were also registered today, lower than yesterday’s 215 total. This brings the total number of COVID-19 fatalities today to 31,961.
Positivity rate went down slightly to 24.9 percent from yesterday’s 25.5 percent, with 64,957 people who were tested.
The DOH also logged 13,794 new recoveries from the COVID-19 disease today, slightly lower than the 13,952 recoveries posted yesterday.
Currently, there are now 1,695,335 individuals listed as total recoveries.
Majority, or 97.3 percent of the cases, are mild and asymptomatic.
A total of 321 duplicates were removed from the total case count, of which 316 were recoveries.
Also, 68 cases tagged earlier as recoveries were reclassified as deaths upon final validation.
All laboratories were operational on August 21, 2021 while three laboratories were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System (CDRS). Based on data in the last 14 days, the three non-reporting laboratories contribute, on average, 0.2 percent of samples tested and 0.5 percent of positive individuals.
The agency continues to remind the public to ensure their safety and to strictly observe safety protocols and to have themselves vaccinated as soon as possible. The DOH also reiterates that the safety of the country is everyone’s responsibility, and that by helping each other, the country will overcome this COVID-19 pandemic.