MANILA (UPDATE)— The Philippines on Thursday confirmed 14,895 new COVID-19 cases, the second highest daily jump since the pandemic began, while the country's active infections top 100,000 for the fifth straight day.

Thursday's number of additional infections is considered the highest since April 2, when the country registered 15,310 new cases, the highest ever recorded, the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group said.

• READ: HIGHEST EVER: Philippines reports 15,310 COVID-19 cases, 3.7K 'from backlogs'

It is also the 9th straight day that new cases counted more than 10,000, according to the research unit.

The country's total reported COVID-19 cases stood at 1,791,003, of which 111,720 or 6.2 percent remain active, data from the health department showed.

Thursday's number of those still battling the disease is the highest since April 21, ABS-CBN Data Analytics head Edson Guido noted.

Meanwhile, the positivity rate is at 23.8 percent, based on test results of 59,828 individuals who got screened for the virus on Tuesday.

There were 258 new fatalities — the highest in 4 days, according to the IRG, and 8,248 more recoveries.

These raised the country's total deaths from COVID-19 to 30,881 and overall recuperations to 1,648,402.

Majority or 180 of the newly added deaths were first classified as recoveries.

The case fatality rate is at 1.72 percent.

A total of 387 duplicates, 385 of which are recoveries, have been removed from the running tally, the Department of Health (DOH) said.

Two laboratories failed to submit data on time.

Based on the DOH's latest bulletin, Metro Manila has a 73 percent intensive care unit (ICU) beds utilization rate.

A total of 72 percent of the ICU beds nationwide, meanwhile, are currently occupied.

Guido said the ICU rates in the capital region and across the Philippines are fall within the 'high risk' category.

Earlier in the day, Malacañang said the country's COVID-19 task force is weighing just 2 options for Metro Manila's quarantine level starting this weekend — enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified ECQ.

• READ: COVID-19 task force weighing just 2 options for Metro Manila: ECQ or MECQ

An extension of the ECQ after Aug. 20 means another tranche of pandemic aid would be distributed, Palace Spokesperson Harry Roque has explained.

The country is battling another surge in virus infections, most likely driven by the more contagious COVID-19 Delta variant, which first emerged in India.

The DOH on Sunday announced the country's first known case of the Lambda variant, which studies have indicated has an effect on vaccine efficacy.

• READ: PH confirms first case of COVID-19 Lambda variant

Since its vaccine rollout in March, the government has been able to administer over 29.1 million virus jabs, of which 16.2 million were first doses.

• Philippines: COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

Nearly 12.9 million individuals, meanwhile, are fully vaccinated against the respiratory disease, government data showed as of Wednesday. Up to 70 million are targeted for full vaccination this year.

WATCH

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv