MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines on Wednesday posted 22,958 additional COVID-19 infections, raising the total count to over 3.29 million.
For the second straight day, the number of active cases went down. According to the Department of Health, the number of people who are currently sick is at 270,728, or 8.2% of the total caseload.
The death toll increased by 82 to 53,044, while recoveries rose by 36,611 to 2,969,853.
Ninety-four of the newly-reported cases occurred from January 6 to January 19. The top regions with new cases in the past two weeks were Metro Manila (36%), Calabarzon (21%) and Central Luzon (9%).
The DOH said that 43.5% of 62,531 samples on January 17 tested positive for COVID-19, way above the threshold set by the World Health Organization.
Six testing laboratories did not submit data to the DOH.
More Omicron variant cases
- The DOH reported the detection of 429 additional cases of the hyper-transmissible Omicron variant, raising the total count to 535. The latest genome sequencing run also found 115 new Delta variant cases and one case of the Alpha variant.
- OCTA Research fellow Guido David said the growth rate of COVID-19 cases slowed down in the capital region and surrounding areas, but the spread of the virus continued to accelerate in other highly urbanized cities.
- The Filipino Nurses United said it is appalled by the decision of the Department of Health to roll back contact tracing efforts and prioritize the testing of people at risk.
— Gaea Katreena Cabico