MANILA (2nd UPDATE) — The Philippines recorded 11,995 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, the Department of Health said Monday.

From Oct. 17-23, an average of 1,714 daily infections were recorded in the country, which is 22 percent lower compared to the previous week, the DOH said.

This is the lowest number of weekly cases in 15 weeks, or since the week of July 4-10 when the DOH logged 10,133, the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group said.

This is also the ninth straight week with weekly cases below 20,000.

Of the new infections during the week, 4 or 0.04 percent were severe and critical cases, according to DOH's latest bulletin.

As of Sunday, 650 or 9 percent of COVID-19 admissions were in severe and critical condition, the agency said.

At least 581 or 23.1 percent of 2,520 intensive care unit beds for COVID-19 patients were occupied. The non-ICU bed utilization rate was at 26.4 percent.

This is the 14th straight week with COVID-19 ICU bed utilization rate above 20 percent, the ABS-CBN IRG said.

During the past week, the DOH has also verified 272 more COVID-related fatalities, citing late encoding of death information. The deaths occurred in the following months:

• - 28 in October 2022
• - 3 in September 2022
• - 3 in August 2022
• - 1 in January 2022
• - 186 in August 2021
• - 14 in July 2021
• - 19 in May 2021
• - 18 in April 2021

This is the highest deaths logged in a single week in six weeks, or since the week of Sept, 5-11 when DOH logged 300, according to the ABS-CBN IRG.

The deaths logged last week is 8 percent higher, or 21 more than the 251 deaths logged a week before.

DAILY COVID-19 CASES LESS THAN 2,000 FOR 4TH DAY

Later on Monday, DOH reported 1,334 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total caseload to 3,995,967.

This is the fourth straight day that the daily cases were below 2,000, ABS-CBN News Data Analytics Head Edson Guido said.

Thirty-five deaths were also reported, raising the total to 63,814.

The number of active cases is now at 22,850, the lowest since September 1, Guido added.

The total number of those who recovered from the illness has reached 3,909,303.

Of the newly reported infections, 367 are from Metro Manila.

As of Oct. 23, about 73.4 million people in the country are already fully vaccinated against the respiratory disease, the DOH said.

Of the figure, more than 20.4 million have received their first booster dose.

• DOH confirms local transmission of omicron XBB subvariant, XBC variant

Last week, the DOH announced the local transmission of the highly contagious omicron XBB subvariant and XBC variant.

Of the 81 XBB cases in the country, 70 have recovered and eight are still undergoing isolation while the status of the remaining three cases is still being verified. None have died from XBB.

The XBB is a recombinant of two omicron subvariants.

Preliminary studies suggest that the XBB variant shows higher immune evasion ability than the BA.5 variant, but there is no sufficient evidence that this variant causes more severe illness.

Meanwhile, of the 193 XBC cases in the country, 176 have recovered, three are still undergoing isolation, while the status of the remaining nine cases is still being verified. Five people have died due to the XBC.

The XBC variant is a recombinant of the omicron BA.2 and delta (B.1.617.2) variant.

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