MANILA (UPDATE) - The Philippines on Monday reported 22,366 new COVID-19 cases, its highest single-day tally since the pandemic began early last year.

The country's total confirmed infections climbed to 1,976,202, of which 148,594 are active, the Department of Health (DOH) said in its daily bulletin.

Active cases have been above the 100,000-mark for the past 15 days, the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group (IRG) noted. The number of active cases in previous days has been adjusted for duplicates.

The research group said Monday's tally of active cases is the country's 14th highest ever. The 13 highest daily figures were recorded last April.

The DOH also recorded 222 recent fatalities, pushing the country's COVID-19 death toll to 33,330, while 16,864 patients have recently recovered from the disease, the DOH said.

Total recoveries stood at 1,794,278.

The day's reported deaths is the highest in four days, or since Aug. 26 when the DOH logged 236 fatalities, the ABS-CBN IRG said. The DOH said "105 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation."

ABS-CBN Data Analytics head Edson Guido said the daily tally of new deaths has been breaching the 100-mark for 13 days already.

The number of new recoveries, on the other hand, is the lowest in three days, or since Aug. 27 when 6,771 were logged, noted the ABS-CBN IRG.

Positivity rate was at 27.5 percent, the DOH said, topping the 27 percent-mark for the third straight day.

"All laboratories were operational on August 28, while 2 labs were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System," the DOH said.

NEARING 2 MILLION-MARK

At this rate, the Philippines "will likely" breach the 2-million mark either on Wednesday, Sept. 1, or Thursday, Sept. 2, Guido said.

The development came a day after the Philippines announced it has detected 516 more Delta variant cases. Of the total 1,789 of such cases so far recorded in the country, 38 are active.

The DOH said that of the additional B.1.617.2 variant infections, 473 were local cases, while 31 were returning overseas Filipinos (ROF), and 12 were still under verification.

Six of the newly detected Delta cases remain active, five cases have died, 505 cases have been tagged as recovered, while the remaining are being validated by the regional and local health offices, DOH said.

• PH detects 516 more Delta variant cases, total now at 1,789

Over the weekend, the DOH said nearly half of hospitals in the capital region are at high risk as occupancy rate remains between 71 and 85 percent.

According to its latest COVID-19 bulletin, ICU beds occupancy rate in Metro Manila is 72 percent, while it is 74 percent nationwide. Ward beds in the capital region are 72 percent occupied, and 70 percent all over the country.

Isolation beds, meanwhile, are 64 percent used up in Metro Manila, and 65 percent nationwide.

Ventilators are 59 percent utilized in Metro Manila, and 53 percent nationwide.

The government's hospital referral hotline is getting at least 500 calls every day, with most callers inquiring about what to do if they have COVID-19 but are asymptomatic, Health spokesperson Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire had said.

"We are meeting with local governments so that they will be establishing their triaging and navigation systems. ‘Yung mga hotlines po ng local government, kailangan pong gumana iyan para hindi po natatambak sa One Hospital Command natin ang mga tawag," she said.

(The local government's hotlines must be working so the calls won't always end up at the One Hospital Command.)

"So, local governments are your first step. Sila po ang una niyong tawagan, sila po ang makakatulong sa inyo para malaman kung saan pong facility kayo dapat dalhin," according to the official.

(Call your localities first, they would help you identify the facilities where you should be brought.)

• DOH: Bed capacity in nearly half of Metro Manila hospitals on high risk

The DOH has been urging the public to get vaccinated if they are already eligible for the COVID-19 jabs to avoid severe or critical cases that may need hospitalization.

As of Aug. 25, the Philippines has fully vaccinated 13.37 million people, which is 18.87 percent of the target number of fully inoculated individuals to attain herd immunity against the disease.

At least 18 million others have received their first dose.

The Philippines logged its first confirmed COVID-19 case on Jan. 30 last year in a Chinese woman who arrived from Wuhan City, China where the disease is believed to have first emerged.

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