MANILA (UPDATE) — The Philippines recorded 3,148 COVID-19 cases in the past week, the Department of Health said Monday.

From April 17 to 23, an average of 450 daily infections were logged in the country, which is 32 percent higher compared to the previous week.

This is the highest number of weekly cases in 16 weeks, or since the week of December 26, 2022 to January 1, 2023, when there were 3,437 cases recorded, the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group said.

This is also the sixth straight week that the number of weekly cases is above 1,000.

Of the new infections during the week, 14 cases were considered severe or critical, according to the DOH's latest bulletin.

As of Sunday, 345 cases or 8.7 percent of total COVID-19 admissions were in severe and critical condition, the agency said.

This is three percent lower, or 11 cases fewer, than the prior week's 356 case, ABS-CBN IRG added.

At least 275 or 13.7 percent of intensive care unit beds for COVID patients were occupied. The non-ICU bed utilization rate was at 17.4 percent.

• National COVID positivity rate at 8.8 pct: OCTA

During the past week, the DOH also verified 5 more COVID-related fatalities, citing late encoding of death information.

None of the deaths occurred from April 10 to 23, DOH also said.

The five deaths occurred in the following months:

• 1 in August 2021
• 1 in July 2021
• 1 in May 2021
• 1 in April 2021
• 1 in September 2020

The number of deaths this week is 75 percent lower, or 15 deaths fewer than the previous week's 20 deaths, ABS-CBN IRG said.

Based on the DOH's COVID-19 Tracker, the Philippines has 4,336 active COVID-19 cases as of April 24.

Three years since the start of the pandemic, the country has recorded over 4,089,394 coronavirus infections. The death toll stood at 66,444.

To date, more than 79.1 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Of the figure, over 24.1 million have received their first booster dose while almost 4.4 million have gotten the second booster shot.

• Kailan dapat magpaturok ng ika-2 COVID-19 booster?

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