THE Department of Health (DOH) logged only 1,297 new COVID-19 infections today, slightly higher than yesterday’s 1,190, according to the DOH COVID-19 Case Bulletin issued today, November 18, 2021.
This brings the total number of COVID-19 infections in the country to 2,821,753 cases.
Active cases, on the other hand, slightly went down further to only 23,158 cases today compared to yesterday’s 23,846 count. Active cases or patients are those undergoing treatment in government hospitals and temporary quarantine facilities.
Recoveries from COVID-19 today, meanwhile, went down to 1,956 from yesterday’s 2,759 count. Overall, COVID-19 recoveries in the country have reached a total of 2,752,173 cases.
However, the DOH logged more than 300 deaths at 305 today compared to yesterday’s 309 to bring the total COVID-19 deaths to 46,422.
The DOH again noted that of the 305 reported deaths today, only 36 occurred in November 2021. The 44 percent of the reported deaths today occurred in October 2021 while 35 percent occurred in September 2021 due to late encoding of death information. This issue is currently being coordinated with the Epidemiology and Surveillance Units to ensure that information is up to date.
Positivity rate today, meanwhile, moved down a small notch at 3.4 percent compared to yesterday’s 3.5 percent based on 42,043 people who were tested.
Around 62.7 percent of the cases were mild and asymptomatic, the DOH bulletin noted.
A total of 38 duplicates were removed from the total case count, of which 36 were recoveries.
There were also 278 cases tagged earlier as recoveries but were reclassified as deaths upon final validation.
All laboratories were operational on November 16, 2021 while four laboratories were not able to submit its data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System (CDRS). Based on data in the last 14 days, the four non-reporting laboratories contributed, on average, 0.8 percent of samples tested and 0.3 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. It 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.