The Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday reported 611 new recoveries and 5,434 additional cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Recoveries are now at 2,779,706 or 97.2 percent of the total 2,861,119 infections since the pandemic started in March 2020.

Active cases climbed to 29,809 of which 24,026 are mild, 3,020 are moderate, 889 are asymptomatic, 328 are critical, and 1,546 are severe.

“Of the 5,434 reported cases today (January 4), 5,395 or 99 percent occurred within the recent 14 days – December 22 to Jan. 4, 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 3,826 or 71 percent of new infections; Calabarzon, 864 or 16 percent; and Central Luzon, 333 or 6 percent.

The death toll has reached 51,604 with 18 new deaths, representing 1.8 percent of overall cases.

“Of the 18 deaths, two occurred in January 2022 (11 percent), eight in December 2021 (44 percent), two in November 2021 (11 percent), three in October 2021 (17 percent), one in August 2021 (6 percent), and two in July 2021 (11 percent) 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.

According to the January 2 data, about 26.2 percent of 24,855 who were tested turned out positive for Covid-19.

“Thirteen duplicates were removed from the total case count as they are recoveries. Also, 121 cases were found to have tested negative and have been removed from the total case count. Of these, 119 are recoveries,” the DOH said.

Fourteen cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after validation.

All laboratories that were operational on January 2 and 16 were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.

The DOH noted that the 16 laboratories contribute, on average, 2.1 percent of samples tested, and 1.8 percent among positive individuals based on data in the past 14 days.

To date, 26 percent of 3,500 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, 27 percent of 19,000 isolation beds, 19 percent of 12,200 ward beds, and 14 percent of 3,000 ventilators are used by patients with Covid-19 nationwide.

Meanwhile, 35 percent of 1,300 ICU beds, 32 percent of 4,600 isolation beds, 36 percent of 3,800 ward beds, and 20 percent of 1,000 ventilators dedicated to patients with Covid-19 are in use in the NCR. (PNA)