By Alec Go
The Department of Health (DOH) on New Year’s Day recorded 3,617 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total case count to 2,847,486 and active case tally to 17,374.
The DOH said 14.8% of the 29,239 samples tested on Dec. 30 turned out positive for the disease.
Based on the Jan. 1 case bulletin, 468 COVID-19 cases have recovered and 43 others succumbed to the disease. There have been 2,778,567 reported recoveries and 51,545 deaths due to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
Of the total active cases, 673 are asymptomatic, 11,603 have mild symptoms, 3,124 are moderate cases, 1,635 are severe, and 339 are critical.
In terms of hospital utilization, intensive care units are 20% utilized, isolation beds are at 22%, ward beds at 13%, and ventilators are at 11%.
Omicron cases
On Dec. 31 evening, the government announced the detection of three local and seven imported cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Two of the local cases are from Bicol Region, while the other case is from the National Capital Region (NCR).
The DOH said the investigation of the local cases “indicates there is high possibility of local transmission.”
Malacaῆang also announced on the same day the reversion of the NCR to Alert Level 3 starting Jan. 3 until Jan. 15, 2022.
“Nakita naman natin sa mga nakaraang araw na nag-increase exponentially ang mga kaso dahil sa holiday activities kung saan tumaas ang movement ng mga tao, at bumaba ang compliance sa minimum public health standards,” Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said.
“Isa rin sa dahilan ang detection ng local cases ng Omicron variant. The epidemiological investigation on the three local cases indicates there is a high possibility of local transmission ng Omicron,” he added.
