MANILA (UPDATE) - The Philippines confirmed 5,279 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the country’s total to 2,756,923.

The Department of Health also reported 7,312 new recoveries, pushing the total number of Filipinos who recovered from the disease to 2,654,173.

This means that the country has a total of 60,957 active cases as of 4 p.m. Sunday--this is the lowest since July 31 this year.

Two hundred eight new deaths were also reported, bringing the country’s death toll from the disease to 41,793.

ICU bed occupancy rates in the Philippines and the National Capital Region, in particular, remain in the safe zone or below 60 percent.

The number of fresh cases has been declining from peaks reached in September as more people were vaccinated against the disease, an independent research group said.

• Philippines' decline in daily COVID cases due to wide vaccine coverage: OCTA
• 81 pct fully vaccinated vs COVID-19 in Metro Manila

The government has said that it wants to inoculate over 77.1 million Filipinos by the end of the year, and has raised its vaccination target to 1.5 million per day.

ABS-CBN News however has been tracking the number of vaccinations since March, and as of Oct. 21, the government has achieved only 32.5 percent of its target after almost 8 months.

• Philippines: COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

Government economic managers lowered the growth target for the second time this year, citing the tighter restrictions reimposed to check the spread of the Delta variant.

Worldwide, the novel coronavirus has infected almost 243.4 million people and caused 4.9 million deaths since it was first reported in Wuhan, China in late 2019 according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

The United States remains the most badly affected country with over 45.4 million infections and over 735,000 deaths.

The Philippines’ first COVID-19 case was a 38-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, China.

The first COVID-19 death outside of China, was also recorded in the Philippines last year.

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv