COVID cases fewer than 1,000 for 3rd day

The Philippines posted 853 infections on Friday — the third straight day the tally fell below 1,000 — bringing the total to 3.67 million.  

The death toll hit 56,770 after 232 more patients died, while recoveries rose by 1,062 to 3.56 million, it said in a bulletin. 

It said 4.3% of 25,496 samples from March 2 tested positive for COVID-19, which is within the World Health Organization’s threshold. 

Coronavirus tests in February were lower than in January, when the heavily mutated Omicron variant spurred a spike in infections. 

Of 50,8230 active cases, 450 did not show symptoms, 45,300 were mild, 2,773 were moderate, 1,411 were severe and 296 were critical. 

DoH said 92% of new cases occurred on Feb. 19 to March 4. The top regions with cases in the past two weeks were Metro Manila with 170, Calabarzon with 128 and Central Visayas with 94 infections. It added that 2% of new deaths occurred in March and 7% in February. 

Eleven duplicates were removed from the tally, five of which were reclassified as recoveries, while 219 recoveries were relisted as deaths. Two laboratories failed to submit data on March 2. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza