MANILA (UPDATED) — The Philippines recorded 8,920 additional COVID-19 cases Thursday, bringing the country's total cases to 756,199, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

This is the 6th highest daily tally of COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.

The DOH also reported 138,948 active cases, a new record-high. This is the 3rd straight day that the number of active COVID-19 cases hit a record-high.

Seven laboratories failed to submit their results, the DOH said.

There are only 6 new COVID-19 related deaths reported, raising the total fatalities to 13,303. Meanwhile, total recoveries went up by 205 to 603,948.

There were 9 cases, 3 tagged as recoveries, that were removed from the official tally due to duplicate entries.

Except for the 6,128 new cases recorded on Wednesday due to a technical issue, the Philippines has been logging more than 8,000 cases since March 25.

• PH reports 6,128 new COVID-19 cases, lowest in over a week

Of the active cases as of Thursday, 95.9% have mild symptoms, 2.5% are asymptomatic, 0.36% have moderate symptoms, 0.6% have severe symptoms, and 0.6% are in critical condition.

Due to the continued surge of COVID-19 cases in the country, the government placed Metro Manila and nearby provinces under the stricter enhanced community quarantine classification until April 4.

Aside from the record-high numbers being recorded since March, hospitals are also facing an increase in the number of patients. While intensive care unit (ICU) beds are still at 58% utilization rate nationwide, those in Metro Manila are already 76% occupied.

It is unclear yet if the relatively lower number of additional COVID cases is affected by the Holy Week and the ECQ implementation but the DOH had urged laboratories to stay open as the country deals with the higher number of cases.

As COVID-19 cases surge, local government units have started simultaneously vaccinating healthcare workers, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities.

As of March 30, 738,913 Filipinos have already been vaccinated against COVID-19. More than 1,000 of them have received a 2nd dose already. The government has drawn flak for its slow rollout of vaccines, which started on March 1. It aims to vaccinate up to 70 million Filipinos by the end of the year to reach herd immunity.

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