THE Department of Health (DOH) logged a total of 18,937 new COVID-19 infections today, slightly lower than yesterday’s 19,271 cases, according to the DOH COVID-19 Case Bulletin issued today, September 20, 2021.
This brings the total number of COVID-19 infections in the country to 2,385,616 cases.
Again, a huge number of recoveries were recorded today with 20,171, lower than yesterday’s 25,037 to bring the number of total recoveries from COVID-19 to 2,171,832 cases.
Also, the number of active cases went down further to 176,850 cases from yesterday’s high of 178,196. Active cases or patients are those undergoing treatment in government hospitals and temporary quarantine facilities.
In terms of fatalities, COVID-19 deaths today went down to 146 cases from yesterday’s 205 total. This brings the total number of COVID-19 fatalities today to 36,934.
However, positivity rate went up to 26.3 percent from yesterday’s 25.1 percent rate, from 72,770 people who were tested.
Majority, or 95.4 percent of the cases, are mild and asymptomatic.
A total of 70 duplicates were removed from the total case count, of which 51 were recoveries.
Also, 53 cases tagged earlier as recoveries were reclassified as deaths upon final validation.
All laboratories were operational on September 18, 2021 while five 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 five non-reporting laboratories contribute, on average, 1.6 percent of samples tested and 1.7 percent of positive individuals.
The DOH 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.