The number of fresh coronavirus infections in the country soared to 33,169, the highest since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the Department of Health (DOH) reported on Monday.

In its latest Covid-19 bulletin, the agency said this brought the total active case tally to 157,526, out of a total of 2,998,530 infections since the start of the pandemic.

Monday’s figure of new cases surpassed Sunday’s 28,707.

Another 3,725 recoveries were also recorded, accounting for 93 percent of the total number of confirmed infections.

Out of the active cases, 147,912 are mild, 2,858 are moderate, 4,994 are asymptomatic, 1,461 are severe, and 301 are critical.

“Of the 33,169 reported cases today, 32,972 (99 percent) occurred within the recent 14 days – Dec. 28, 2021 to Jan. 10, 2022,” the DOH reported.

The regions with the most cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region (NCR) with 18,535 or 56 percent of new infections; Calabarzon, 7,443 or 23 percent; and Central Luzon, 3,403 or 10 percent.

The death toll has reached 52,293 with 145 new deaths, representing 1.76 percent of overall cases.

“Of the 145 deaths, 3 occurred in November 2021 (2 percent), 18 in October 2021 (12 percent), 52 in September 2021 (36 percent), 22 in August 2021 (15 percent), 24 in July 2021 (17 percent), 13 in June 2021 (9 percent), 5 in May 2021 (3 percent), 1 in March 2021 (1 percent), 1 in February 2021 (1 percent), and 6 in January 2021 (4 percent). Deaths were from and Region 11 (145 or 100 percent) due to the late encoding of death information to COVIDKaya,” the DOH said.

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

According to the January 8 data, about 46 percent of 73,234 who were tested turned out positive for Covid-19.

“Eighty-six duplicates were removed from the total case count as 73 of these are recoveries and two are deaths,” the DOH said.

Meanwhile, 124 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after validation.

All laboratories were operational on January 8 but 10 were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.

The DOH said the 14 laboratories contribute, on average, 6.2 percent of samples tested, and 6.3 percent among positive individuals based on data in the past 14 days.

To date, 38 percent of 3,400 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, 41 percent of 19,500 isolation beds, 41 percent of 13,500 ward beds, and 17 percent of 2,900 ventilators are used by patients with Covid-19 nationwide.

Meanwhile, 52 percent of 1,100 ICU beds, 54 percent of 4,700 isolation beds, 67 percent of 4,800 ward beds, and 25 percent of 1,000 ventilators dedicated to patients with Covid-19 are in use in the NCR. (PNA)