The presence of vendors drastically increase in the area as people flock to the Manila Baywalk Dolomite Beach to watch the sunset on October 21, 2021. The recently opened government project has been a hit destination for visitors and tourists since the IATF eased restrictions of the NCR to Alert Level 3. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News
MANILA (UPDATE)— The Philippines on Saturday posted 5,807 additional COVID-19 cases, just as authorities announced the possibility of further easing lockdown restrictions in the capital region next month amid the decline in infections.
This is the 5th day that fresh infections were fewer than 6,000, data showed.
The country's total reported COVID-19 cases is at 2,751,667, of which 63,051 are still active, according to the Department of Health (DOH).
Saturday's active cases is the lowest since August 2, ABS-CBN Data Analytics head Edson Guido said.
Positivity rate remained at 10.3 percent, based on samples received from 58,834 individuals on Thursday. This means that 1 in 10 people who got screened for the virus yielded a positive test.
Guido said the positivity rate for the day is the lowest in more than 3 months or since July 16.
A total of 65 more people died due to the respiratory disease, raising the total number of fatalities to 41,585.
Fifty-one of the day's fatalities were first classified as recoveries, the DOH said.
Meanwhile, there were 9,578 new recoveries, raising the country's total recuperations to 2,647,031.
Twenty-nine duplicates, 27 of which are recoveries, have been excluded from the running tally, according to DOH.
Two laboratories failed to submit data on time.
"ICU bed occupancy rates in PH and NCR remain in the safe zone (below 60%)" Guido said.
Authorities earlier in the day said the chances of Metro Manila being placed under Alert Level 2 soon is "very high," as COVID-19 infections continued to dip.
Vergeire on Friday told reporters that the relatively fewer cases logged in recent days is consistent with the positivity rate and hospital admissions, which "showed a downward trend."