MANILA (UPDATE) - The Philippines confirmed 9,475 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday bringing the country’s total to 721,892.

This was the third straight day that the country logged more than 9,000 new cases.

The Department of Health meanwhile also reported 22,000 new recoveries pushing the total number of Filipinos who recovered from the disease to 603,154. This was the fifth highest number of recoveries since the pandemic began.

This means that the country has a total of 105,568 active cases as of 4 p.m. Sunday.

Eleven more deaths were reported from the illness, bringing COVID-19’s death toll in the Philippines to 13,170.

Sunday’s tally however does not include data from 7 labs that were not able to submit on time.

ABS-CBN Data Analytics also noted that the positivity rate is now nearly 20 percent, or one of every 5 people tested is positive for the disease. The World Health Organization recommends a positivity rate of 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days, before reopening the economy.

A health expert has said the Philippines can reduce its daily COVID-19 cases if the government ramps up its vaccination efforts "without rest for three months".

President Rodrigo Duterte however has said the government has yet to purchase any vaccines from foreign drugmakers.

The pandemic has already caused the Philippines to plunge into its worst economic contraction since World War 2.

Economic managers had been looking forward to a sharp rebound in growth in the second quarter as the economy opened up.

The World Bank however said the country’s slow mass vaccination amid surging COVID-19 cases has prompted it to lower its recovery expectations for the Philippines.

On Friday, the World Bank slashed its 2021 Philippine growth forecast to 5.5 percent from 5.9 percent--below the government’s target of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent growth for the year..

The country’s first COVID-19 case was a 38-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, China.

The first COVID-19 death outside of China, was also recorded in the Philippines last year.

Worldwide, the novel coronavirus has infected more than 126.7 million people and caused over 2.77 million deaths since it was first reported in Wuhan, China in late 2019 according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

The United States remains the most badly affected country with over 30 million infections and over 548,000 deaths.

Brazil ranks second with 12.5 million infections and over 310,000 COVID-19 fatalities. In terms of number of infections, India is third with 11.97 million confirmed cases. In terms of deaths meanwhile, Mexico ranks third with over 201,000 deaths.

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