The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday reported 1,521 new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections, raising the overall tally to 68,898.

The DOH said the additional cases reported were based on the total tests done by 62 out of 84 operational laboratories. The newly announced cases include 1,237 from the National Capital Region, 51 from Cavite, 51 from Laguna, 34 from Rizal and 22 from Davao del Sur.

It also reported 607 new recoveries and four new deaths.

These figures bring the total number of recoveries to 23,072 and the total number of deaths to 1,835.

“Of the four deaths, all deaths occurred in July 2020. Deaths were from Region 7 which is two or 50 percent, NCR which is one or 25 percent and Region 11 which is one or 25 percent. Seventy-nine duplicates were removed from total case count,” the DOH said.

It added the total cases reported may be subject to change as these numbers undergo constant cleaning and validation.

The DOH also noted that there are 43,991 active cases and about 90.6 percent of them are mild, 8.5 percent are asymptomatic, 0.4 percent are severe, and 0.5 percent are critical.

In a Covid-19 presser, UP Covid-19 Pandemic Response Team member Dr. Darwin Bandoy said a decrease in the positive rate and reproductive number means improvement in the national response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Kapag nakikita nating bumababa ang positivity rate ibig sabihin nag-i-improve na po ‘yung pag-detect ng bilang ng mga kaso at ibig sabihin, mas kakaunti na ang nagkakasakit, at ‘yung reproductive number, bumababa siya, less than one, mas nakokontrol na natin ang (When the positivity rate goes down it means the detection of cases has improved and less are getting sick, and the reproductive number goes down, less than one, we’re able to control the) pandemic,” Bandoy said.

However, the increase in Covid-19 cases at the moment may be associated to improved detection of the disease because of the expanded testing in the country, he added.

As of Sunday, a total of 1,087,528 individual tests were performed by the 63 licensed RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) laboratories and 22 licensed GeneXpert laboratories nationwide.

The DOH also has 15,596 total bed capacity dedicated to patients with Covid-19.

Occupied are about 49 percent of 1,358 intensive care unit beds; 49 percent of 10,573 isolation beds; and 54.9 percent of 3,665 ward beds.

There are 1,988 total ventilators for Covid-19 patients with about 25.3 percent in use. (PNA)