MANILA (UPDATED) — The Philippines recorded 16,017 additional COVID-19 cases in the past week, the Department of Health said Monday.

From Sept. 26 to Oct. 2, an average of 2,288 daily infections were recorded in the country, which is 10 percent lower compared to the previous week, according to the health department's latest bulletin.

This is the sixth straight week that reported weekly cases were below 20,000, the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group said.

Of the new infections during the week, four or 0.03 percent were severe and critical.

As of Sunday, 753 or 10.5 percent of COVID-19 admissions were in severe and critical condition, the DOH said.

At least 611 or 24.3 percent of 2,515 intensive care unit beds for COVID-19 patients were occupied. The non-ICU bed utilization rate was at 26.2 percent.

This is the 11th straight week with ICU bed utilization rate above 20 percent. The COVID-19 ICU bed utilization rate in the weeks of July 18 to September 18 ranged from 21.7 percent to 28 percent, ABS-CBN IRG added.

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During the past week, the DOH said it also verified 228 more COVID-related fatalities, citing late encoding of death information.

This is the lowest number of deaths logged in a single week in eight weeks, or since the week of August 1 to 7 when DOH logged 80 deaths, ABS-CBN IRG said.

This is also the third straight week with weekly deaths below 300.

The deaths occurred in the following months:

• 35 deaths in September 2022
• 3 in July 2022
• 1 in June 2022
• 4 in February 2022
• 3 in January 2022
• 182 in September 2021

1,967 NEW CASES REPORTED OCT. 3

Later in the day, the DOH also reported 1,967 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total caseload to 3,955,758 cases.

Twenty-nine deaths were also reported, raising the total to 63,042.

The number of active cases is now at 28,111, while the total number of those who recovered from the illness has reached 3,864,605.

Of the newly reported infections, 869 are from Metro Manila.

As of Oct. 2, more than 73.1 million people in the country are fully vaccinated against the respiratory disease, the DOH said.

Of the figure, over 19.7 million have received their first booster dose while more than 2.9 million have gotten their second booster shots.

Last week, the DOH said 13 out of 17 local government units in Metro Manila were under "moderate risk" for COVID-19.

Six out of 17 areas in Metro Manila also saw an increase in hospital admissions for COVID-19, it added.

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The country may experience 2,000 daily COVID-19 cases by the end of the year, an expert said Monday.

This comes as the government dropped outdoor mask mandate, and amid the high levels of mobility and the presence of coronavirus variants.

• 2,000 daily COVID-19 cases seen in PH towards yearend

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