The country continues to experience a steady decline in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and remains to be under low-risk case classification, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Tuesday, Feb. 22.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the country's one-week and two-week growth rates remain to be negative while the average daily attack rate is at moderate risk.
She added that all island groups are showing a decline in its COVID-19 cases while all regions recorded COVID-19 cases less than 1,000 for this week.
Except for CAR and Region 11, all regions are under low-risk case classification and have shown negative two-week growth rates which means that there is a decline in new COVID-19 infections.
The national healthcare system's capacity is at low-risk except for Region 11 whose Intensive Care Unit (ICU) utilization rate is at moderate risk at 58 percent.
With the decline of COVID-19 cases, DOH said that a large percentage of national hospital admissions are asymptomatic and mild while only 12 to 15 percent are severe and critical.
"Karamihan sa mga naoospital ay mild at moderate ang sintomas. Patotoo ito na mabisang panangga ang mga bakuna laban sa malubha at kritikal na sakit na dulot ng COVID-19 (Most of those who are hospitalizaed experience mild and moderate symptoms. This is proof that COVID-19 vaccines are effective in fighting against severe and critical ilnesses caused by COVID-19 infections)," she said.
Vergeire also bared that among the Variants of Concern (VOCs), Omicron had the highest number of new infections yet lowest number of severe and critical cases.
New lowest single-day tally
DOH reported 1,019 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday (Feb. 22), close to less than 1,000. Active cases stood at 56,668.
Tuesday's case bulletin brings the total number of cases to 3,654,284. Of the 1,019 reported cases, DOH said that 982 or 96 percent occurred within the recent 14 days from Feb. 9 to Feb. 22. The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region (NCR) at 197 or 20 percent, Region 4-A at 124 or 13 percent and Region 1 at 85 or 9 percent.
Among the active cases, 51,395 are mild; 2,840 are moderate; 1,425 are severe; 704 are asymptomatic; while 304 are in critical condition.
DOH also reported 2,988 new recoveries bringing the total number to 3,541,840 or 96.9 percent of the total number of cases while 13 more have died from COVID-19 bringing the death toll to 55,776 or 1.53 percent of the total number of cases.
All labs were operational on Feb. 20. However, five labs were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System (CDRS).