The Philippines posted 14,546 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, January 31, according to data released by the Department of Health.
The latest report noted that the positivity rate was at 28.4 percent based on test results of samples from 52,013 people on January 29.
Of the newly reported cases, 1,381 came from the Davao region, 1,053 from Metro Manila, and 973 from Central Visayas.
The Philippines has so far recorded a total of 3,560,202 cases, of which 190,818 or 5.4 percent remain active.
Of those still infected with the virus, majority or 177,584 are mildly ill, 8,239 have no symptoms, and 3,126 are moderate cases.
Independent group OCTA Research on Monday said the actual number of coronavirus cases in the national capital could be “less than twice” the official number reported by the health department.
OCTA Research fellow Guido David said that this was because the 343 random antigen tests conducted by the Department of Transportation on Wednesday and Thursday yielded a positivity rate of 0.6%.
“Assuming [the capital’s] population of 14 million, then the margin of error is plus-minus 5% (with 95% confidence interval.) Based on [Department of Health] data, the total number of new reported cases in the NCR from January 20 to 29 was about 46,000,” David said.
“This means that the actual number of cases, which include asymptomatic and symptomatic cases not tested, and those tested with antigen but not reported, could be 1.8 times higher than the official numbers reported by DOH, with a 5% error margin.”
He said the figure confirms that the number of new cases in the capital region is steadily decreasing. The number of unreported cases, too, is “decreasing at a significant rate” he said.
