By Jillian Marielle Tiraña

PHOTO: Business Times

The Department of Health (DOH) announced a 1.2% climb in the Philippines’ COVID-19 positivity rate on Thursday, bringing the percentage to 16.2% — the country’s highest since April 29.

DOH reported the increase in positivity rate after keeping it below 15% in the last three months when an additional 5,735 COVID-19 cases were recorded among 49,392 individuals who were tested for the virus. The count was based on the data submitted by 233 labs to the COVID-19 Document Repository System on July 28.

The current number of active cases is 56,273, roughly 94.7% of these classified as mild or asymptomatic.

As of July 29, the total number of reported COVID-19 cases is 1,572,287. 3.6% of which are active cases, 94.7% have recovered, while the death toll accounts for 1.75% or 27,577.

Metro Manila continues to hold the highest number of COVID-19 cases with 550,585 infections followed by CALABARZON and Central Luzon with 264,157 and 141,587 cases, respectively.