PHL posts 28,471 new cases, 34,892 new recoveries – first time this year that new recoveries exceeded new cases

Number of new cases is also below 30k for the first time in almost a week

Courtesy DOH

 

(Eagle News) – The number of COVID-19 recoveries on Tuesday, January 18, reached 34,892, the first time that the new recoveries were higher than new COVID-19 cases this year.

The new COVID-19 cases were 28,471, the first time in almost a week that new COVID-19 cases were not above 30,000.

The last time that new COVID-19 cases were below 30,000 was on January 11, when new cases reached 28,007.

Because of this, total active cases in the country went down compared to the total active cases the previous day. As of Tuesday, January 18, there were 284,458 total active cases, which is lower than Monday’s total of 290,938.

The COVID-19 positivity rate was at 43.4 percent, the lowest in 11 days. The last time that the positivity rate was lower than this was on Jan. 7 when the positivity rate was at 40 percent..

Most of the active cases were still either mild or asymptomatic. Mild cases were at 270,784, while asymptomatic cases were 8,930.

New COVID-19 deaths on Sunday were 50, higher than Saturday’s (January 15) record of 43.

Meanwhile, new COVID-19 deaths reported were 34. This is higher than Monday’s 23 deaths. For six days straight, the number of daily new virus cases were less than 100.

Earlier, on Monday night, January 18, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that the percentage of increase in COVID-19 cases was lower than previous weeks.

While COVID-19 cases continued to rise, most are mild cases.  Severe and critical case admissions in hospitals are on the plateau, meaning they are not increasing in contrast to the numbers in September 2021 when the spike in cases was accompanied by a spike in hospital admission of critical and severe cases.

(Eagle News Service)