Philippines reports 16,907 new COVID-19 cases

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines on Saturday reported 16,907 more coronavirus cases, bringing the country’s overall count to over 2.47 million.

The total COVID-19 infections in the Philippines stood at 2,470,235, the Department of Health said.

No deaths were recorded on for the second straight day due to "technical issues in COVIDKaya," the DOH said. COVIDKaya is a digital platform which stores data from all confirmed COVID-19 cases and their close contacts. 

"The Department of Information and Communications Technology is currently addressing issues encountered by the system. When the issue is resolved, the succeeding increase in deaths in the following reports will be due to the previous days' backlog," it said. 

• Active cases: 165,110 or 6.7% of the total
• Recoveries: 27,120, bringing the number to 2,267,720
• Deaths: 0, still at 37,405

The positivity rate was at 23.6%, based on the test results of 74,606 people who got screened on Thursday.

Antigen tests and face shields

• DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said validated positive results from antigen tests will be slowly included in the country’s daily COVID-19 case count.
   
• Vergeire also advised the public to “cautiously interpret our current data” given issues with laboratory outputs.
   
• The face shields delivered to healthcare workers are in good condition, the DOH said, following the admission of an official from Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. that the firm tampered with the expiration of the protective gear being sold to the government.