The year 2022 opened with 3,617 new Covid-19 cases to push the total number of infections in the Philippines to 2.847 million and active cases to 17,374.

(rappler.com)

Total recoveries are 97.6 percent of total infections or 2.778 million, with 468 added on Saturday, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

Of the active cases, 11,603 are mild, 673 are asymptomatic, 339 are critical, 1,635 are severe, and 3,124 are moderate.

"Of the 3,617 reported cases today (January 1), 3,607 occurred within the recent 14 days, December 19 to January 1, 2022," the DOH said.

The top regions with most cases in the recent two weeks were the National Capital Region (NCR) with 2,526 or 20 percent; Calabarzon with 570 or 16 percent; and Region 3 (Central Luzon) with 199 or 6 percent of the new cases.

The death toll has reached 51,545 with 43 new deaths.

"Of the 43 deaths, 5 occurred in December 2021 (12 percent), 4 in November 2021 (9 percent), 7 in October 2021 (16 percent), 14 in September 2021 (33 percent), 6 in August 2021 (14 percent), 2 in July 2021 (5 percent), 3 in June 2021 (7 percent), 1 in November 2020 (2 percent), and 1 in August 2020 (2 percent) due to late encoding of death information to COVIDKaya," the DOH said.

The COVIDKaya is a digital application used by health care workers to collect and share data about Covid-19 cases.

The DOH added the issue is being coordinated with the Epidemiology and Surveillance Units to ensure information is up to date.

According to the December 30 data, about 14.8 percent of 29,239 who were tested turned out positive for Covid-19.

"Sixteen duplicates were removed from the total case count, of these, seven are recoveries and two are deaths. Also, 95 cases were found to have tested negative and have been removed from the total case count, of these, 95 are recoveries," the DOH said.

It added 41 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.

Two laboratories were not operational on December 30 and six laboratories were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.

The DOH noted that the eight laboratories contribute, on average, 0.2 percent of samples tested, and 0.1 percent among positive individuals based on data in the last 14 days.

To date, 20 percent of 3,500 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, 22 percent of 18,700 isolation beds, 13 percent of 12,100 ward beds, and 11 percent of 2,900 ventilators are utilized by patients with Covid-19 nationwide.

Meanwhile, 25 percent of 1,300 ICU beds, 23 percent of 4,700 isolation beds, 24 percent of 3,700 ward beds, and 14 percent of 1,000 ventilators dedicated to patients with Covid-19 are in use in the NCR.