December 29, 2021 11:46
The cold snap that hit the country over the weekend reduced confirmed coronavirus cases Monday as many people stayed home instead of struggling to test centers, but they promptly rose again as the mercury climbed.
Some 160,000 people were tested on Sunday and 130,000 on Monday, only about half the 250,000 to 260,000 tested daily the week before, which reduced positive results to below 4,000 for the first time in weeks. But on Tuesday 196,500 took the test and positive results rose above 5,000 again.
But other indexes are improving. The infection reproduction rate fell to 0.98 per person in the fourth week of December, below 1 for the first time in eight weeks, and the ICU occupancy rate shrank to 79.3 percent, down from 81.5 percent the previous week.
The number of patients waiting for a bed for more than a day in the capital region stood at a mere nine on Monday, down from 107 a day earlier.
The number of critically ill patients, however, has remained above 1,000 for nine consecutive days.
As of Wednesday morning, the daily tally of new infections stood at 5,409 with 1,151 severe cases and 36 deaths.
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