The number of new cases for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) hit more than 8,000 for the third straight day on Sunday, fuelling fears that the Delta variant is very much present in the Philippines.

The Department of Health (DOH) logged 8,662 Covid-19 cases on Friday and 8,147 on Saturday.

Meanwhile, 5,930 new recoveries were reported.

In the latest case bulletin, the DOH said the accumulated recovery tally accounts for 94.3 percent of the total 1.598 million infections since the start of the pandemic last year.

Meanwhile, the 8,735 new infections brought the total number of active cases to 63,646 or 4 percent of total cases.

About 94 percent of these active cases are mild, 1.3 percent are asymptomatic, 1.2 percent are critical, 2.1 percent are severe, and 1.45 percent are moderate.

A total of 127 new deaths were also reported, pushing the country’s total number of Covid-19 fatalities to 28,016.

According to DOH data on July 30, about 14.9 percent of 50,116 who were tested turned out positive for Covid-19.

“About 11 duplicates were removed from the total case count, and of these, eight are recoveries. Moreover, nine cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as active cases and 75 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation,” the report added.

Two laboratories were operational on July 30 and four laboratories were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System.

The DOH noted the four non-reporting laboratories contribute, on average, 1.8 percent of samples tested, and 1.3 percent of positive individuals based on data in the last 14 days.

To date, 59 percent of 3,600 intensive care unit beds, 51 percent of 19,200 isolation beds, 48 percent of 12,600 ward beds, and 40 percent of 2,800 ventilators are utilized by patients with Covid-19 nationwide.

Meanwhile, 51 percent of 1,200 intensive care unit beds, 49 percent of 4,500 isolation beds, 42 percent of 3,600 ward beds, and 39 percent of 1,000 ventilators are in use in the National Capital Region.