MANILA (UPDATE) — The Philippines recorded 15,314 additional COVID-19 cases in the past week, the Department of Health said Monday.

On Oct. 10-16, an average of 2,188 daily infections were recorded in the country, which is 7 percent higher compared to the previous week.

This is the eight straight week that weekly cases are below 20,000, the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Team said.

Last week's cases is 981 higher compared to the 14,333 reported on Oct. 3-9.

Of the new infections during the recent week, 4 or 0.03 percent were severe and critical, according to DOH's latest bulletin.

As of Sunday, 690 or 9.6 percent of COVID-19 admissions were in severe and critical condition, the agency said.

At least 625 or 25 percent of 2,504 intensive care unit beds for COVID-19 patients were occupied. The non-ICU bed utilization rate was at 26.8 percent.

This is the 13th straight week that ICU bed utilization rate was above 20 percent, or from the week of July 18, the ABS-CBN IRG also said.

During the past week, the DOH has also verified 251 more COVID-related fatalities, citing late encoding of death information. The deaths occurred in the following months:

• 33 in October 2022
• 8 in September 2022
• 2 in August 2022
• 1 in February 2022
• 194 in August 2021
• 12 in July 2021
• 1 in August 2020

1,938 NEW CASES REPORTED ON OCT. 17

The DOH also reported 1,938 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the country's total to 3,984,815.

Thirty-seven deaths were also reported, raising the total to 63,297.

The number of active cases is now at 25,848, while the total number of those who recovered from the illness has reached 3,895,420.

Of the newly reported infections, 675 are from Metro Manila.

BREAKING: DOH reports 1,938 new cases and 37 new deaths today.

NCR with 675 new cases.

The positivity rate on October 16 is at 13.4%. pic.twitter.com/fUiannDCgI

— Edson C. Guido (@EdsonCGuido) October 17, 2022

As of Oct. 16, almost 73.4 million people in the country are already fully vaccinated against the respiratory disease, the DOH said.

Of the figure, more than 20.3 million have received their first booster dose.

• DOH: COVID-19 variant XBB not yet detected in Philippines

Global health authorities are keeping tabs on several COVID-19 omicron subvariants, including the XBB.

Local officials have yet to detect the omicron subvariant XBB, which is a recombinant of BJ.1 (BA.2.10.1 sublineage) and BM.1.1.1 (BA.2.75 sublineage), in the country.

Preliminary studies suggest that the sublineage shows higher immune evasion ability than BA.5, the DOH said.

The BA.5 is among 2 omicron subvariants that are partly driving a wave of new cases of the disease in Europe and the United States.

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