March 16, 2021 THE Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday, March 16, 2021, reported over 4,000 new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) for the fifth straight day. In its case bulletin at 4 p.m. Tuesday, DOH listed 4,437 new infections, which raised the cumulative case count to 631,320. Active cases increased further to 57,736, or 9.1 percent of the total. There were 11 additional mortalities, raising the death toll to 12,848. The case fatality rate declined further to 2.04 percent. There were 166 new recoveries, bringing the total recoveries to 560,736. The daily positivity rate remained high at 11.2 percent as 2,786 out of 24,932 tested as of noon of March 15 yielded positive results. Healthcare utilization rates further increased, especially in the National Capital Region (NCR), where the biggest increase in cases has been documented.