The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday reported another 17,220 fresh coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections.

In its latest Covid-19 bulletin, the agency said this raised the active case count to 56,561.

Thursday’s new infections are equivalent to a nearly 60 percent increase from Wednesday’s 10,775 fresh cases.

Out of the active cases, 49,988 are mild, 2,954 are moderate, 1,837 are asymptomatic, 312 are critical, and 1,470 are severe.

“Of the 17,220 reported cases today, 17,104 (99%) occurred within the recent 14 days – December 24 to January 6, 2022,” the DOH reported.

Meanwhile, 616 new recoveries brought the number of recovered cases to 2,780,613 or 96.3 percent of a total of 2,888,917 infections since the pandemic started in March 2020.

The regions with the most cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region (NCR) with 11,563 or 68 percent of new infections; Calabarzon, 3,165 or 19 percent; and Central Luzon, 1,126 or 7 percent.

The death toll has reached 51,743 with 81 new deaths, representing 1.79 percent of overall cases.

“Of the 81 deaths, 6 occurred in January 2022 (7 percent), 6 in December 2021 (7 percent), 8 in November 2021 (10 percent), 19 in October 2021 (23 percent), 24 in September 2021 (30 percent), 12 in August 2021 (15 percent), 3 in July 2021 (4 percent), 2 in June 2021 (2 percent), and 1 in May 2021 (1 percent) due to the late encoding of death information to COVIDKaya,” the DOH said.

COVIDKaya is a digital application used by health care workers to collect and share data about Covid-19 cases.

According to its January 3 data, about 31.7 percent of 44,643 who were tested turned out positive for Covid-19.

“Forty-eight duplicates were removed from the total case count as 46 of these are recoveries. Also, 66 cases were found to have tested negative and have been removed from the total case count as they are recoveries,” the DOH said.

Meanwhile, 66 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after validation.

All laboratories that were operational on January 4 and eleven were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.

The DOH noted that the 11 laboratories contribute, on average, 2.8 percent of samples tested, and 4.5 percent among positive individuals based on data in the past 14 days.

To date, 31 percent of 3,500 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, 34 percent of 19,200 isolation beds, 27 percent of 12,500 ward beds, and 14 percent of 2,900 ventilators are used by patients with Covid-19 nationwide.

Meanwhile, 43 percent of 1,200 ICU beds, 42 percent of 4,700 isolation beds, 50 percent of 4,000 ward beds, and 18 percent of 1,000 ventilators dedicated to patients with Covid-19 are in use in the NCR. (PNA)