The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday reported 4,444 new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) infections, raising the overall tally to 143,749.

The DOH said the additional cases reported were based on the total Covid-19 tests done by 91 out of 100 operational laboratories.

The majority of the newly announced cases are from the National Capital Region (NCR) with 2,618 cases, Laguna with 233 cases, Cavite with 227 cases, Rizal with 174 cases, and Bulacan with 129 cases. These are currently under the second most stringent modified community quarantine.

It also reported 636 new recoveries and 93 deaths. These figures increased the number of recoveries to 68,997 and the number of deaths to 2,404.

“Of the 4,444 reported cases today, 3,294 cases or 74 percent cases occurred within the recent 14 days (July 30-Aug. 12, 2020) and the top regions with cases from the recent two weeks were from NCR with 1,855 or 57 percent, Region 4A with 580 or 18 percent and Region 3 with 190 or 6 percent. Of the 93 deaths, 13 or 14 percent were in August, 49 or 53 percent were on July, 30 or 32 percent in June, and 1 percent were in May and the deaths were from Region 7 with 67 or 72 percent, NCR with16 or 17 percent, Region 9 with three or 3 percent, Region 6 with two or 2 percent, Region 5 with two or 2 percent, Region 11 with two or 2 percent, and Region 4A with one or 2 percent,” the DOH said.

It added that 231 duplicates were removed from the total case count and of these, nine recovered cases and one death have been removed.

The health department also noted that the country has 72,348 active cases — around 91.3 percent are mild, 7.3 percent are asymptomatic, 0.6 percent are severe, and 0.7 percent are critical patients.

As of Tuesday, the 79 licensed RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) laboratories and 26 licensed GeneXpert laboratories have already conducted a total of 1,726,148 tests nationwide.

The DOH said it has 17,500 total bed capacity dedicated to Covid-19 patients. Occupied are about 55 percent of 1,500 intensive care unit beds; 49 percent of 11,500 isolation beds; and 51 percent of 4,500 ward beds. (PNA)