THE Department of Health (DOH) recorded a total of 16, 694 new COVID-19 cases today, the second highest in terms of new cases recorded in a single day since the pandemic began, according to the latest DOH COVID-19 Case Bulletin issued today, August 21, 2021.
The all-time high for daily infections was recorded by the DOH yesterday at 17,231 cases.
With the additional cases today, the total number of COVID-19 infections in the country is now at 1,824,051.
Also, the number of active cases shot up slightly to 123,935 from yesterday’s 123,251 count. Active cases or patients are those undergoing treatment in government hospitals and temporary quarantine facilities.
A total of 398 COVID-19 deaths were registered today, much higher than yesterday’s 317 total. This brings the total number of COVID-19 fatalities today to 31,596.
Positivity rate went down slightly to 25.2 percent from yesterday’s 26.1 percent, with 65,808 people who were tested.
The DOH also logged 15,805 new recoveries from the COVID-19 disease today, almost three times higher than the 5,595 recoveries posted yesterday.
Currently, there are now 1,653,351 individuals listed as total recoveries.
Majority, or 97.2 percent of the cases, are mild and asymptomatic.
A total of 443 duplicates were removed from the total case count, of which 426 were recoveries.
Also, 211 cases tagged earlier as recoveries were reclassified as deaths upon final validation.
All laboratories were operational on August 19, 2021 while four 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 four non-reporting laboratories contribute, on average, 2.7 percent of samples tested and 4.2 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.