MANILA (UPDATED) - The Philippines reported 24,100 new COVID-19 cases and 744 severely and critically ill patients last week, the Department of Health said Monday.

The country logged an average of 3,443 infections per day from July 25 to 31, according to the DOH's latest bulletin. The figure is 24 percent higher than the previous week's 2,791 average daily cases.

• Philippines reports 33pct more COVID cases during the last week

Later in the day, the DOH reported a daily addition of 3,553 cases and 10 deaths. These bring the total confirmed cases recorded in the country to 3,780,178, and the death toll to 60,737, as of Monday.

Of the new cases, 1,185 are from Metro Manila.

Active cases stood at 34,268, which is the highest since April 4, ABS-CBN Data Analytics Team head Edson Guido said.

Of the additional infections on July 25-31, the DOH said 76 were severe and critical.

A total of 744 or 9.2 percent of COVID-19 patients in hospitals were in severe and critical condition as of Sunday, said the DOH. The figure is higher than the previous week's 666 severe and critical patients who comprised 8.7 percent of COVID-19 hospital admissions at the time.

There were 601 or 23.3 percent of 2,583 intensive care unit (ICU) beds for COVID-19 patients that were occupied as of Sunday.

Watch more News on iWantTFC

During the past week, 44 COVID-related fatalities were verified, including those in previous months. The deaths occurred in the following period:

• 1 in June 2022
• 3 in January 2022
• 2 in November 2021
• 7 in October 2021
• 20 in September 2021
• 11 in August 2021

ANALYSIS BY RESEARCH GROUP

The number of recorded new cases on July 25-31 is the highest since the week of Feb.7-13 this year, when the DOH logged 28,280, the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group said.

It is also higher by 23.4 percent, or by 4,564 cases, compared to the 19,536 logged on July 18-24.

Last week's additional cases is the first in 24 weeks that the weekly total breached 20,000, said the ABS-CBN IRG.

As regards, COVID-19 ICU bed utilization, the 23.3 percent reported as of Sunday is the highest in 21 weeks, or since the week of March 1-7, when the rate was at 25.7 percent, noted the research group.

There has been upward trend in the said rate in the last seven weeks, according to the ABS-CBN IRG, as specified below:

June 13-19: 14.6%
June 20-26: 14.9%
June 27-July 3: 15.3%
July 4-10: 17.0%
July 11-17: 18.3%
July 18-24: 21.7%
July 25-31: 23.3%

The country's rise in virus infections can be attributed to waning immunity, the public's increased mobility and lower compliance to minimum health standards, and the entry of new subvariants, the DOH earlier said.

The Philippines has so far detected 1,997 omicron BA.5 cases, 154 omicron BA.2.12.1 cases, and 71 omicron BA.4 cases, according to the DOH.

• Philippines detects 923 more cases of omicron subvariants
• Metro Manila at moderate risk for COVID-19, healthcare utilization still low risk: DOH

Some 71 million people have been fully vaccinated against the respiratory disease, of whom 16.2 million have received their booster shots.