The Department of Health (DOH) reported 535 new recoveries and 4,600 additional cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) on Sunday.

Recoveries are now at 2,778,943 or 97.4 percent of the total 2,851,931 infections since the pandemic began in March 2020.

Active cases rose to 21,418, of which 15,644 are mild, 3,081 are moderate, 769 are asymptomatic, 335 are critical, and 1,589 are severe.

“Of the 4,600 reported cases today (January 2), 4,548 occurred within the recent 14 days, December 20 to January 2, 2022,” the DOH reported.

As in the previous day, the top regions with most cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region (NCR) with 3,729 or 72 percent; Calabarzon, 676 or 15 percent; and Region 3 (Central Luzon), 252 or 6 percent of the new cases.

The death toll has reached 51,570 with 25 new deaths, representing 1.81 percent of overall cases.

“Of the 25 deaths, 7 occurred in December 2021 (28%), 2 in November 2021 (8%), 1 in October 2021 (4%), 4 in September 2021 (16%), 6 in August 2021 (24%), 1 in June 2021 (4%), 3 in April 2021 (12%), and 1 in March 2021 (4%) due to 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.

The DOH coordinates with the Epidemiology and Surveillance Units to ensure information is up to date.

According to the December 31 data, about 19.6 percent of 26,122 who were tested turned out positive for Covid-19.

“Sixteen duplicates were removed from the total case count, of these, seven are recoveries and two are deaths. Also, 95 cases were found to have tested negative and have been removed from the total case count, of these, 95 are recoveries,” the DOH said.

Forty-one cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after validation.

Two laboratories were not operational on December 30 and six laboratories were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.

The DOH noted that the eight laboratories contribute, on average, 0.2 percent of samples tested, and 0.1 percent among positive individuals based on data in the last 14 days.

To date, 22 percent of 3,500 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, 20 percent of 18,700 isolation beds, 14 percent of 12,000 ward beds, and 12 percent of 2,900 ventilators are utilized by patients with Covid-19 nationwide.

Meanwhile, 27 percent of 1,200 ICU beds, 23 percent of 4,600 isolation beds, 26 percent of 3,700 ward beds, and 15 percent of 1,000 ventilators dedicated to patients with Covid-19 are in use in the NCR. (PNA)