MANILA (UPDATE) — The Philippines recorded 17,891 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, the Department of Health said Monday.

From Sept. 19 to 25, the country recorded an average of 2,556 daily infections, which is 22 percent higher compared to the previous week, according to the health department's latest bulletin.

This is also the highest number of cases logged in a single week in 4 weeks, or since the week of Aug. 22 to 28, according to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group.

But it is also the fifth week with weekly cases below 20,000, ABS-CBN IRG added.

Of the new infections, 2 or 0.01 percent were severe and critical.

As of Sunday, 790 or 11 percent of COVID-19 admissions were in severe and critical condition, the DOH said.

This is the highest proportion of severe and critical cases to the total COVID-19 admissions in 15 weeks, or since the week of June 6 to 12 when the proportion was at 11.3 percent, ABS-CBN IRG said.

At least 576 or 22.9 percent of 2,514 intensive care unit beds for COVID-19 patients were occupied. Meanwhile, the non-ICU bed utilization rate was at 27.8 percent.

This is the tenth straight week with ICU bed utilization rate above 20 percent. The COVID-19 ICU bed utilization rate in the weeks of July 18 to Sept. 18 ranged between 21.7 percent and 28 percent, ABS-CBN IRG said.

• Philippines reports 3,520 new COVID cases, highest daily tally since Sept. 1

During the past week, the DOH said it verified 242 more COVID-related fatalities, citing late encoding of death information. The deaths occurred in the following months:

• 34 in September 2022
• 1 in January 2022
• 59 in October 2021
• 147 in September 2021
• 1 in April 2021

ACTIVE CASES BACK AT OVER 37,000

Later in the day, the DOH also reported 2,001 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total caseload to 3,940,201 cases.

Twenty-nine deaths were also reported, raising the total to 62,819.

The number of active cases is now at 37,082, the highest since Aug. 19, ABS-CBN Data Analytics Team head Edson Guido said.

The total number of those who recovered from the illness has reached 3,840,300.

Of the newly reported infections, 947 are from Metro Manila.

To date, around 73 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated against the respiratory disease.

Of the figure, some 19 million have received their first booster dose while almost 2.7 million have gotten their second booster shots.

Due to typhoon Karding, the DOH delayed Monday's launch of "PinasLakas Bakunahang Bayan" in Luzon, including Metro Manila.

The special vaccination week, set from Sept. 26-30, aims to administer at least 5 million booster shots.

• DOH postpones launch of 'Bakunahang Bayan' in Luzon due to Karding

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