MANILA (UPDATE) — The Philippines recorded 1,721 COVID-19 cases in the past week, the Department of Health said Monday.

From March 27 to April 2, an average of 246 daily infections were logged in the country, which is 33 percent higher compared to the previous week.

This is the highest number of weekly cases in 10 weeks, or since the week of January 16 to 22, when the DOH reported 1,890 cases, according to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group.

Of the new infections during the week, 13 cases were considered severe or critical, according to the DOH's latest bulletin.

As of Sunday, 347 cases or 9.3 percent of total COVID-19 admissions were in severe and critical condition, the agency said.

This is 13 percent higher that the prior week, of 40 admissions more than last week's 307 cases, ABS-CBN IRG also said.

At least 271 or 13.7 percent of intensive care unit beds for COVID patients were occupied. The non-ICU bed utilization rate was at 16.5 percent.

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During the past week, the DOH also verified 58 more COVID-related fatalities, citing late encoding of death information.

According to ABS-CBN IRG, the number of deaths for the week is 3 percent lower, or fewer by 2 deaths than last week's 60 deaths.

The deaths occurred in the following months:

• -1 occurred in October 2022
• -1 in March 2022
• -6 in February 2022
• -6 in January 2022
• -5 in October 2021
• -9 in September 2021
• -7 in August 2021
• -4 in July 2021
• -2 in June 2021
• -3 in May 2021
• -9 in April 2021
• -2 in March 2021
• -1 in February 2021
• -1 in November 2020
• -1 in October 2020

Based on the DOH's COVID-19 Tracker, the Philippines has 9,080 active COVID-19 cases as of April 2.

Since the pandemic broke out in 2020, the country has logged 4,081,818 coronavirus infections. The death toll stood at 66,390.

According to the National COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard, more than 79.1 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated against the virus.

The tally showed 24.1 million people had received their first boosters while 4.3 million had gotten their second boosters.

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