MANILA (UPDATE) - The Philippines on Thursday confirmed 16,313 more COVID-19 infections, while the country's active cases counted almost 132,000, data from the health department showed.

The ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group (IRG) said the day's fresh cases is considered the 4th highest since the pandemic started in the Philippines, which is battling a new surge in virus infections due to the more transmissible Delta variant.

It is also the 16th straight day that new cases topped 10,000, the research unit noted.

Based on the Department of Health's (DOH) latest tally, the country has 1,899,200 total recorded coronavirus cases, of which 131,921 or 6.9 percent are active.

ABS-CBN Data Analytics head Edson Guido said the number of active cases is the highest since April 19 this year.

Daily active cases have been more than 100,000 for 12 straight days already, data collated by the ABS-CBN IRG showed.

The positivity rate, meanwhile, is at 24.9 percent, based on test results of samples from 65,903 individuals last Tuesday.

Guido noted that the positivity rate was at least 24 percent daily in the past week.

There are also 236 new fatalities, raising the country's death toll to 32,728.

This is the 9th straight day that additional deaths counted more than 150, the ABS-CBN IRG said.

A total of 125 recoveries were found to be fatalities, according to the health department.

The DOH also logged 9,659 patients who have recuperated from the disease, pushing the total recoveries in the country to 1,734,551 or 91.3 percent of the total recorded cases.

A total of 201 duplicates have been excluded from the running tally, all of which are recoveries.

Five laboratories failed to submit data on time.

Metro Manila's intensive care unit (ICU) beds utilization rate rose to 77 percent from 73 percent on Wednesday, as more hospitals in the region declare full capacity due to the continued stream of virus admissions.

Nationwide, 75 percent of ICU beds are already occupied.

The DOH said earlier in the day that the entire Metro Manila and nine other regions in the country are currently classified as high risk for COVID-19, even as the country continues its vaccination program against the respiratory disease.

• Entire Metro Manila, 9 other regions classified as high risk for COVID-19: DOH

The Delta variant - which is known to be more contagious than the original COVID-19 strain - accounts for about 11 percent of all sequenced samples in the Philippines, an official from the agency added.

• COVID-19 Delta variant detected in all Philippine regions except Bangsamoro: DOH

Based on government data, at least 18 million Filipinos received their first jab against COVID-19, while nearly 13.4 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated.