(Eagle News) — COVID-19 cases in the Philippines rose to 2,851,931 after the Department of Health reported 4,600 additional cases on Sunday, Jan. 2.
This is an increase of almost 1,000 cases from the 3,617 additional cases reported the day before.
The DOH said two laboratories were not operational on December 31, 2021 while nine laboratories did not submit data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System (CDRS).
According to the DOH, of the total cases, 21418 were active.
Of these, 769 were asymptomatic, 15644 were mild, 3081 were moderate, 1589 were severe, and 335 were critical.
Recoveries rose to 2,778,943 with the addition of 535 recoveries.
The COVID-19 death toll is now at 51,570 with the addition of 25 deaths.
The Department of Health has warned of a possible “exponential” increase in COVID-19 cases following the “continued decreased adherence” to minimum public health standards and the detection of three local Omicron variant cases.
With the three local Omicron variant cases–two from Bicol and one from Metro Manila–the Philippines now has 14 detected cases of the highly transmissible variant.
The World Health Organization has said the Omicron variant was “probably” already in most countries but remains undetected.
Researchers have found over 30 mutations in the variant spike protein that attaches to the human ACE-2, which prompted them to say the variant may evade existing immunity.
The OCTA research group has said Metro Manila was now at a “high risk” for COVID-19, with a COVID-19 positivity rate of 28.03 percent.
The COVID-19 positivity rate refers to the number of people who test positive for COVID-19 of the number of people tested.
