MANILA (UPDATE) - The Philippines on Monday reported 8,292 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest daily tally since Aug. 5 this year, data from the health department showed.

Of the total 2,674,814 confirmed cases, 98,894 or 3.7 percent are active, according to the latest Department of Health (DOH) bulletin.

COVID-related deaths increased by 36, resulting in a total of 39,660 or 1.48 percent of the cumulative number of infections.

This is the lowest daily death toll in nearly two months or since Aug. 16 when the DOH logged 27 fatalities, excluding days when it announced zero deaths due to data collecting issues, according to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group.

There were also 302 more recoveries, raising the total number of recuperations to 2,536,260 or 94.8 percent of the country's total virus cases.

The number of new recoveries reported is the lowest daily tally in five days, according to ABS-CBN IRG.

Virus positivity rate was at 16.5 percent, based on samples of 52,352 individuals on Saturday, Oct. 9. It is the fourth straight day that the country's COVID-19 positivity rate was below 17 percent, said the ABS-CBN IRG.

The intensive care unit (ICU) bed utilization rate in Metro Manila and the Philippines was at 67 percent and 69 percent, respectively.

• DOH classifies Cordilleras, Cagayan Valley, Zamboanga as 'high-risk' for COVID-19

Virus positivity rate was at 16.5 percent, based on samples of 52,352 individuals on Saturday, Oct. 9. It is the fourth straight day that the country's COVID-19 positivity rate was below 17 percent, said the ABS-CBN IRG.

The intensive care unit (ICU) bed utilization rate in Metro Manila and the Philippines was at 67 percent and 69 percent, respectively.

• DOH classifies Cordilleras, Cagayan Valley, Zamboanga as 'high-risk' for COVID-19

Forty duplicates were removed from the total case count, including 32 patients who recovered, the DOH said. Twenty-one cases that were previously tagged as recoveries, meantime, were reclassified as deaths after final validation, it added.

All laboratories were operational on Saturday but two were unable to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System (CDRS). The two non-reporting laboratories contribute, on average, 0.2 percent of samples tested and 0.4 percent of positive individuals, according to the DOH.

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The country's daily COVID-19 cases have decreased, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire confirmed last week as she urged anew the public not to get complacent.

• As PH virus cases decline, public warned vs complacency: DOH
• DOH: COVID-19 cases going down, decline not 'artificial'

Government might relax restrictions by Christmas should virus cases continue to drop, Vergeire said.

"Definitely we are looking at that. 'Yun ang ating hope, 'yun ang ating gustong makita (That's our hope, that's what we want to happen)," she told ABS-CBN's Teleradyo.

The vaccination of the general adult population has begun, while the inoculation of children aged 12 to 17 with health risks is set on Friday, Vergeire added.