THE Department of Health (DOH) on Monday, September 6, 2021, reported 22,415 new cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), surpassing the previous daily record as rapid transmission of the Delta variant continues unabated.

In its case bulletin, the DOH also reported a new record high in the daily positivity rate at 28.8 percent on September 4, a Saturday.

Although eight laboratories were not able to submit their data to the Covid-19 Document Repository System, the testing output last September 4 was still high at 73,264.

The new cases brought the cumulative Covid-19 case count to 2,103,331. There were 68 duplicates that were removed from the tally.

The DOH also reported 103 additional deaths, raising the Covid-19 death toll to 34,337. The case fatality rate declined to 1.63 percent, but DOH officials have warned that the death toll could climb further due to delayed reporting of mortalities.

A total of 1,909,361 individuals have now overcome Covid-19, including the 20,109 new recoveries reported on Monday.

The previous highest daily case count in the country was 22,366 on August 30. In the past three days, new infections have exceeded 20,000 a day.

Since late July, DOH officials said they have observed a new peak in daily cases each week. (Marites Villamor-Ilano / SunStar Philippines)