MANILA (UPDATE) - The Philippines' total recorded COVID-19 cases crossed the 2 million mark on Wednesday after 14,216 more infections were logged, data from the health department showed.

The country, which is battling a new surge in virus infections driven by the more virulent Delta variant, now has 2,003,955 total coronavirus cases since the pandemic started.

Active cases reached 140,949, accounting for 7 percent of the running tally.

"The relatively low number of cases today is due to lower laboratory output last Monday," the Department of Health (DOH) said.

The ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group (IRG) said the day's tally is the 15th highest in the country so far. This is also the 22nd day that new cases counted more than 10,000.

The number of those still battling the disease remained over 100,000 for the 17th straight day, the research unit added. The number of active cases in previous days has been adjusted for duplicates.

ABS-CBN Data Analytics head Edson Guido said the country added another million COVID-19 cases in just a little over 4 months. The first million infections took more than a year, he noted.

According to the latest bulletin from the DOH, the positivity rate is at 26.4 percent, based on the results of 51,473 individuals tested on Monday.

There were also 86 new deaths and 18,754 new recoveries.

The ABS-CBN IRG said the day's additional deaths is the lowest in over 2 weeks or since Aug. 16, when the agency logged 27 fatalities.

The country's total fatalities climbed to 33,533, and the total recoveries, to 1,829,473.

A total of 118 duplicate cases have been excluded from the cumulative total. These include 91 recoveries and a death, DOH said.

Thirty-seven recovered cases also turned out to be fatalities after the agency's revalidation.

Five laboratories failed to submit data on time.

The intensive care unit (ICU) beds in Metro Manila is 71 percent occupied, while nationwide, it is at 73 percent.

Last month alone, the Philippines logged at least 400,000 new COVID-19 cases, its nine highest freshly confirmed peaking Aug. 30 with 22,366, the deaths of more than 5,500 due to the disease, the country's highest positivity rate, and the highest ICU bed occupancy rate, Guido had noted.

Active cases also increased by over a hundred percent in August 2021 only, he added.

• PH records more than 400,000 new COVID-19 cases in August 2021
• Philippines: COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

As of Monday, the government has been able to administer 33.7 million virus jabs, of which 19.7 million are first doses.

Nearly 14 million individuals, meanwhile, are fully vaccinated against the respiratory disease, government data showed.

The Philippines confirmed its first 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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