The Department of Health (DOH) logged a record high 34,021 new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections and 4,694 recoveries Thursday.

The country’s highest single-day new cases increased the active cases to 237,387 while total recoveries rose to 2,802,286, or 90.6 percent of 3,092,409 infections since the pandemic started in March 2020.

Out of the active cases, 225,408 are mild, 2,881 are moderate, 7,332 are asymptomatic, 1,468 are severe, and 298 are critical.

“Of the 34,021 reported cases today, 33,456 (98 percent) occurred within the recent 14 days – Dec. 31, 2021 to Jan. 13, 2022,” the DOH said.

Thursday’s tally of fresh cases is higher than Wednesday’s 32,246. and Monday’s previous record of 33,169.

The regions with the most cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region (NCR) with 16,793 or 50 percent of new infections; Region 4-A (Calabarzon), 7,131 or 21 percent; and Central Luzon, 3,745 or 11 percent.

The death toll is now 52,654 with 144 new deaths, representing 1.72 percent of overall cases.

“Of the 82 deaths, 37 occurred in January 2022 (45 percent), 5 in December 2021 (6 percent), 2 in November 2021 (2 percent), 6 in October 2021 (7 percent), 13 in September 2021 (16 percent), 4 in August 2021 (5 percent), 2 in July 2021 (2 percent), 1 in May 2021 (1 percent), 7 in April 2021 (9 percent), 2 in March 2021 (2 percent), 2 in January 2021 (2 percent), and 1 in April 2020 (1 percent) due to the late encoding of death information to COVIDKaya,” the DOH said.

About 47.9 percent of 78,866 who were tested according to the January 11 data turned out positive for Covid-19.

“Two hundred forty-six duplicates were removed from the total case count as 180 of these are recoveries and one is a death,” the DOH said.

Meanwhile, some 44 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after validation.

All laboratories were operational on January 11 but seven were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.

The DOH said the 11 laboratories contribute, on average, 5 percent of samples tested, and 6.6 percent among positive individuals based on data in the past 14 days.

To date, 45 percent of 3,400 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, 46 percent of 20,100 isolation beds, 45 percent of 13,400 ward beds, and 19 percent of 3,000 ventilators are used by patients with Covid-19 nationwide.

Meanwhile, 58 percent of 1,100 ICU beds, 54 percent of 4,800 isolation beds, 66 percent of 4,400 ward beds, and 26 percent of 1,100 ventilators dedicated to patients with Covid-19 are in use in the NCR. (PNA)