COVID-19 deaths near 25,000 with 177 new fatalities
CNN Philippines – The country’s COVID-19 death toll moved close to 25,000 at 24,973 after 177 more patients lost their lives to the disease, the Department of Health (DOH) said Friday.
The death toll is 1.75 percent of the nationwide tally, which rose to 1,424,518 with 6,192 new infections. Of the total, 3.9 percent or 55,482 are active or sick people – with at least 91.5 percent experiencing mild symptoms, 3.8 percent without symptoms, 2 percent with severe symptoms, 1.44 percent in moderate condition and 1.4 percent in critical condition.
The number of survivors also climbed to 1,344,063 or 94.4 percent of the COVID-19 total after 2,212 more people recovered.
The DOH said it reclassified 114 recoveries – 12 into active cases and 102 into fatalities – after validation. It also deleted 11 duplicates, including one fatality and eight recoveries.
The total excludes data from four laboratories that failed to submit their reports on time, the DOH said. These laboratories contributed an average of 0.05 percent of samples tested and 0.25 percent of positive individuals in the last 14 days.
The daily positivity rate, or percentage of individuals who tested positive, slightly dropped from 11.9 percent on June 29 to 11.4 percent based on 51,536 tests on June 30.
The rate will still get updated but it is far from the below 5 percent recommended by the World Health Organization. Experts said high rates may mean high transmission and there are more cases that have yet to be detected.
Independent research group OCTA said the daily average cases in Metro Manila rose slightly to 686 from June 25 to July – up 5 percent compared to the week before.
