MANILA - The Philippines on Friday recorded 2,232 more COVID-19 cases, continuing its streak of below 3,000 fresh infections for the fifth day, data from the health department showed.

The positivity rate has declined to 9.1 percent, based on samples of 29,812 individuals on Feb. 16, Wednesday, based on the latest Department of Health bulletin.

Of the newly reported cases, 2,131 or 95 percent occurred within the recent 14 days. Metro Manila (378 cases), Calabarzon (236 cases) and Central Visayas were the top regions with cases in the recent two weeks.

The number of fresh infections is the third lowest case daily tally so far this year, following 2,196 cases announced Thursday and 2010 cases reported Tuesday, according to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group.

The Philippines has so far tallied a total of 3,648,925 cases, of which 65,796 or 1.8 percent remain active. This is the lowest number of active infections since Jan. 6 when 56,561 active cases were recorded, the ABS-CBN IRG said.

Of those still battling the disease, 60,252 (91.57 percent) were mild cases, 946 (1.44 percent) were asymptomatic, 2,869 (4.36 percent) were moderate cases, 1,422 (2.16 percent) were severe cases, and 307 (0.47 percent) were critical cases.

COVID-related deaths increased by 79, resulting in a total of 55,409 fatalities. This is lowest daily figure since Wednesday, when the DOH announced 77 deaths, the research group said.

Of the newly reported deaths, 16 occurred this month, 32 last month, 1 in November, 11 in October, 12 in September, 5 in August and 2 in July.

There were 3,010 more recoveries, raising the total number of recuperations to 3,527,720.

One hundred duplicates, including 95 recoveries, were removed from the total case count, while 70 cases previously tagged as recuperations were reclassified as deaths after final validation, the DOH said.

Five laboratories, which contribute on average 1 percent of samples tested and 0.9 percent of positive cases, were unable to submit their data, the DOH said.

The intensive care unit (ICU) bed utilization rate in Metro Manila and nationwide was at 32 percent and 31 percent, respectively.

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The Philippines is now classified as "low risk" for COVID-19 cases due to wide vaccination coverage, the Department of Health said Friday.

Government has fully vaccinated some 62.2 million individuals, while 61.5 million have received an initial dose, and 9.5 million booster shots have been administered as of Thursday.

Some 2,666,272 jabs were administered during the third round of the Bayanihan Bakunahan Program, which ends Friday, according to Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire. Of the total figure, 551,392 were first doses, 1,082,916 were second doses, and 684,267 were booster shots, she said.

Some 329,000 children ages 5 to 11, meantime, have received a COVID-19 jab in 482 vaccination sites nationwide, Vergeire added.