MANILA (2nd UPDATE) - The Philippines tallied 6,831 additional COVID-19 cases on Saturday, the highest in nearly 2 weeks, as new deaths reached more than 100 for the 5th straight day.

Saturday's fresh infections raised the country's cumulative total to 1,178,217, of which 54,326 or 4.6 percent are tagged as active cases.

The novel coronavirus claimed 183 more lives in the country, bringing the death toll to 19,946.

According to the Department of Health (DOH), the day's new fatalities included 131 cases initially classified as recovered.

This is also the 5th straight day that newly-reported deaths exceeded 100, data showed.

Meanwhile, there were 7,981 new recoveries, raising the country's overall recuperations to 1,103,945.

The total number of recoveries accounts for 93.7 percent of the country's running tally.

Out of 48,824 individuals who underwent testing for COVID-19 on Thursday, 13 percent were found positive for the virus.

A total of 17 duplicates, 14 of which were recoveries, have been excluded from the country's total recorded cases.

Three testing laboratories failed to submit data on time.

The DOH said the 3 laboratories contributed an estimated 0.7 percent of the total samples tested for COVID-19 and 0.9 percent people who were found positive for the virus in the past 2 weeks.

ICU BED CAPACITY

ABS-CBN Data Analytics head Edson Guido pointed out that the intensive care unit (ICU) bed rate in the capital region went back to the moderate zone on Saturday at 61 percent occupancy, from Friday's 56 percent, a threshold which is considered as safe.

Nationwide, ICU beds are currently 60 percent full, despite the slow growth of novel coronavirus infections.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier this month said that some hospitals' COVID-19 isolation wards were converted to ICU beds to help cope with ICU admissions.

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