Only 4 percent of the more than 56,000 active cases of Covid-19 are critical while among hospital admissions, between 12 and 15 percent are classified as severe to critical, a health official said Tuesday.

In a Palace briefing, Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said a large percentage of hospital admissions are asymptomatic and mild.

“Kasabay ng patuloy na pagbaba ng mga kaso ng Covid-19 ang pagbaba ng bilang ng severe and critical cases na na-o-ospital (Along with the decrease in the number of Covid-19 cases, the number of severe and critical cases being hospitalized are also going down),” she added.

The DOH national admissions data on February 20 showed 1,151 or 11.35 percent are severe cases and 450 or 4.84 percent are critical ones.

Meantime, about 1,724 or 16.24 percent are symptomatic, 3,253 or 31.28 percent are mild, and 3,881 or 36.29 percent are moderate.

Vergeire noted the decrease in the number of critical and severe cases could be attributed to the vaccination drive since Covid-19 jabs prevent death or severe symptoms.

Currently, the country is classified as low risk for Covid-19 infections, with negative one-week and two-week growth rates and moderate risk average daily attack rate.

“Sa lahat po ng rehiyon, mas mababa na po sa isang libo ang mga na-itatalang kaso kada araw para sa linggong ito. Maliban sa CAR (Cordillera Administrative Region) at Region 10 (Northern Mindanao), ang lahat po ng rehiyon ay nasa low-risk case classification na (In all regions, the cases logged are lower than one thousand daily for this week. Except for CAR and Region 10, all regions are in the low-risk classification),” Vergeire said.

As of Tuesday, 4 p.m., the DOH reported 1,019 new cases of Covid-19, the lowest single-day tally this year, for an overall 56,668 active cases.

There were also 2,988 new recoveries and 12 deaths. (PNA)