A total of 2,578 people were admitted to hospitals with Covid-19 and 29 people died during the previous 24 hours, the Public Health Ministry announced on Saturday morning.
That compared with 2,424 new cases and 25 coronavirus-related fatalities reported on Friday morning.
Authorities no longer report the total number of new positive Covid tests, which most health experts believe to be in the tens of thousands daily. Most cases are mild and people tend to recover in 5-7 days.
A total of 1,877 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovering in the previous 24 hours.
Since the pandemic started in early 2020, there have been 4,573,463 cases, including 2,350,028 this year, with 4,517,636 complete recoveries to date. The cumulative death toll is 31,127, including 9,429 this year.
The highest number of Covid-related fatalities in a 24-hour period was 312 on Aug 13, 2021. The highest number of cases was 28,379 on April 1, 2022 — back when authorities were still reporting all positive PCR tests.
As of midnight Friday, a total of 24,700 people were receiving Covid treatment (up from 24,028 the previous day), including 11,792 in hospitals (down from 11,624). Among the remainder, 12,908 were in field hospitals or hospitel facilities and home/community isolation (down from 12,404), according to the daily update posted by the Department of Disease Control.
Of those in hospitals, 886 were seriously ill with lung inflammation (up from 868) and 412 dependent on ventilators (up from 383).
Vaccinations continued to progress, with 141 million doses administered as of Friday. According to the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, 82.1% of the population has now received at least one dose, 76.8% at least two shots and 43.9% at least one booster shot.
On Friday alone, 62,379 vaccine doses were administered — 7,732 as a first shot, 18,374 as a second and 56,273 as a booster.
Global Covid cases rose by 864,604 in the past 24 hours to 573.65 million. The worldwide death toll went up by 1,772 to 6.4 million. The United States had the most cases at 92.14 million, up 106,465.
