The Philippines saw 26, 458 new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on Saturday, January 8, the country’s highest number of new infections reported in a single day since the pandemic began.
The latest figure surpassed the previous all-time high of 26,303 cases reported September 11 last year.
This pushed the country’s total caseload to 2,936,875. Of these, 3.5 percent or 102,017 are active cases, according to the Department of Health (DOH).
The DOH also reported an all-time high positive rate of 43.7% out of 77,004 tests conducted. This means two out of five people tested turned out to be positive for the virus.
Furthermore, the DOH confirmed 265 more fatalities due to COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 52,135. This includes 238 people who were first tagged as recoveries.
Meanwhile, 16,013 more patients survived the disease which represents 94.8 percent of the country’s total cases of the viral respiratory illness. Total recoveries are at 2,782,723.
The intensive care unit (ICU) beds occupancy rate in the country was at 34 percent as of date.
On the other hand, 38 percent of the country’s total isolation beds were utilized, 34 percent of the ward beds were occupied, while 18 percent of the total number of ventilators were in use.
The all-time high COVID-19 cases come as the Philippines is facing a post-holiday surge believed to be fueled by the Omicron variant.
Due to the spiking COVID-19 infections, Cavite and virus epicenter Metro Manila, among others, have been placed under the more stringent Alert Level 3 status until January 15.
READ: Cavite placed under Alert Level 3 as COVID-19 cases spike
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