Covid cases down, recoveries up

New virus infections at 870, bringing down active cases to 48,793 from 49,374

Good news came Sunday with the country recording 1,433 more Covid-19 recoveries and new cases dropping to 870, bringing the country’s total active cases from 49,374 the day before down to 48,793, the Department of Health (DoH) reported Sunday.

Of the 48,793 active cases, 44,131 are mild, 2,693 are moderate, 401 are asymptomatic, 1,279 are severe, and 289 are critical, the DoH said. Recovered cases have reached 3,561,726 or 97.1 percent of 3,667,542 confirmed infections two years since the pandemic began.

“Of the 870 reported cases today, 799 (92 percent) occurred within the recent 14 days, 21 February to 6 March 2022,” the DoH reported, adding the regions with the most cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region with 212 or 27 percent.

Metro Manila was followed by CALABARZON with 126 or 16 percent, and Central Visayas with 80 or 10 percent. The death toll has reached 57,023 with 144 new deaths, representing 1.55 percent of overall cases, the department said.

“Of the 144 deaths, 12 occurred in March 2022 (8 percent), 64 in February 2022 (44 percent), 48 in January 2022 (33 percent), 3 in December 2021 (2 percent), 6 in November 2021 (4 percent), 4 in October 2021 (3 percent), and 7 in September 2021 (5 percent) due to the late encoding of death information to COVIDKaya,” the DoH reported.

COVIDKaya is a digital application used by health care workers to collect and share data on Covid-19 cases. Based on 1 March data, about 3.9 percent of 24,543 who were tested turned out positive for coronavirus. About six duplicates were removed from the total case count as two of those were actually recoveries.

A total of 130 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after validation. All laboratories were operational on 4 March, but five laboratories were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.

The DoH said the five laboratories contributed, on average, 0.8 percent of samples tested, and 0.5 percent among positive individuals based on data in the past 14 days.

As of the last tally, 25 percent of 3,700 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, 22 percent of 20,500 isolation beds, 14 percent of 14,000 ward beds, and 12 percent of 3,000 ventilators were in use by patients with Covid-19 nationwide.

In Metro Manila, 25 percent of 1,300 ICU beds, 21 percent of 4,600 isolation beds, 24 percent of 3,900 ward beds, and 15 percent of 1,000 ventilators dedicated to patients with Covid-19 are in use, according to a report by the