The Department of Health (DOH) reported 15,592 new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases over the past 24 hours.
The new cases brought the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines since last year to 2,417,419.
Meanwhile, the DOH said 154 more fatalities were added to the death toll which currently stood at 37,228 or 1.54 percent of the case total.
The DOH reiterated that the case fatality rate (CFR) is lower as compared in 2020 despite the increase in the daily recorded cases this year.
"The DOH data showed that the CFR of the country in 2021 was at 1.47 percent as compared to 2.47 percent in 2020," it said.
“The decrease shown in the national case fatality rate was multifactorial. One of the factors that the Department is considering is the overall improvement of the country’s healthcare system over the past year and its ability to cope with the higher demand for clinical assessment, referral, and management of cases," said DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire.
“The COVID-19 vaccination program also played a role in the decrease. Vaccines continue to provide the promised protection against more severe COVID-19 and deaths. Moreover, this was the effect of the strategies and behavioral-change campaigns implemented as early as August 2020 to mitigate the risk of transmission and slow down the spread of COVID-19,” she added.
On the other hand, there were 24,059 new survivors that were recorded, raising the recovery count to 2,217,611 or 91.7 percent of the overall case tally.
Active infections
The death toll and recovery tally left the number of active cases in the Philippines at 162,580---which represents 6.7 percent of the total case count.
Of these patients, 92 percent of them have mild symptoms, three percent are asymptomatic, 0.7 percent are in critical condition, 1.5 percent are severe, while 2.81 percent are in moderate condition.
Based on the recent DOH COVID-19 situationer, most of the active cases were in Metro Manila as of Sept. 20.
It was followed by Calabarzon, Central Luzon, Western Visayas, Cagayan Valley, Ilocos region, Davao region, Central Visayas, Cordillera Administrative Region, and Bicol Region.