The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday, Oct. 21 reported 4,806 new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases.
The nearly 5,000 new cases brought the total number of cases in the country to 2,740,111.
The case bulletin of the DOH also showed 5,934 recoveries and 260 new deaths.
Total recoveries rose to 2,633,039 while total deaths climbed to 41,237.
The Health department said 64 duplicates were removed from the total case count as 51 of these were recoveries.
"Moreover, 175 cases that were previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation," it said.
The DOH said all labs were operational on Oct. 19, 2021 and were able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Document Repository System (CDRS).
Meanwhile, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III believes the Philippines will be under the "low risk" classification "very soon."
"Our two-week growth rate is at negative 44 percent for the whole country, while the average daily attack rate is at 7.72, which is almost at moderate risk level," he said in a television interview.
"This means that the whole Philippines will be at low risk anytime soon, very soon," added Duque.
The Health chief also cited the drop in the healthcare utilization rate (HCUR) in the country from 55 percent to 48 percent, as of Oct. 17.
Duque said even the intensive care unit (ICU) utilization rate in the country also dropped from 68 percent to 61 percent.