(Eagle News) – The Philippines posted 41,471 COVID-19 recoveries on Satuday, January 22, which is the most number of virus recoveries so far this year.

This is also higher than the reported new COVID-19 cases  on Saturday of 30,552.  In the last two days, there were more new cases than new recoveries.

Saturday’s number of new recoveries were the highest in over three months. The last time that there were higher number of recoveries was on Oct. 3, 2021 when the Department of Health reported 45,249 new recoveries. At that time, there were still no confirmed Omicron variant cases in the country.

There were also lower number of new COVID deaths at 97 on Saturday (Jan. 22), compared to the last two days (156 on Jan. 21, and 110 on Jan. 20).

Total recoveries reached 3,053,499, representing 90.1 percent of the total confirmed COVID-19 cases, 3,387,524.

Siginificantly, the ICU bed utilization rate for the whole country was higher at 52 percent. Compare this to the ICU bed utilization in Metro Manila aloe which was lower at 50 percent. This shows that those outside the Philippine capital are having more ICU COVID cases.

ICU bed utilization rate is also higher nationwide at 52 percent, than in Metro Manila at 47 percent.

This data jibes with pronouncement from DOH and OCTA Research of rising COVID-19 cases in the provinces, particularly those outside the NCR (National Capital Region) plus areas.

On Friday, new recoveries were 16,385.

On Saturday, total active cases have gone down to 280,619 from Friday’s (Jan. 21) number of 291,618.

Most of the active cases are still either mild or asymptomatic at 98.3 percent.

The Omicron variant is said to have less severe symptoms than other COVID-19 virus variants. It also has a shorter incubation period of two to three days.

(Eagle News Service)