The Department of Health (DOH) recorded 3,617 new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases on New Year's Day on Saturday, Jan. 1.
Saturday's tally already surpassed Friday, Dec. 31, 2021's numbers of 2,961 COVID-19 cases.
The last time the country recorded more than 3,000 cases was on Nov. 1, 2021 wherein the DOH recorded 3,117 new cases.
During the past few days, case numbers have rapidly been doubling after staying less than 500 before the Christmas and New Year's Day revelries.
READ MORE: OCTA projects 4,000 new PH COVID-19 cases on New Year's Day
On Dec. 28, the DOH logged only 421 cases but on Dec. 29 it quickly went up to 889. The daily cases nearly doubled on Dec. 30 when 1,623 infections were recorded.
The case bulletin's recent update brings the country's total number of cases to 2,847,486. Of this, 17,374 or 0.6 percent are active cases. Among the active cases, 11,603 are mild; 3,124 are moderate; 1,635 are severe; 673 are asymptomatic; while 339 are in critical condition.
DOH also recorded 468 new recoveries bringing the total to 2,778,567 or 97.6 percent of the total number of cases while 43 have died from the virus bringing the death toll to 51,545 or 1.81 percent of the total number of cases.
Independent research group OCTA projected that new COVID-19 cases may reach up to 4,000 on Saturday, Jan. 1.
OCTA research fellow Dr. Guido David said in a tweet that in the National Capital Region (NCR) there is a projected increase in new cases that is said to reach 3,000.
Meanwhile, the DOH also urged the public once again to get vaccinated as it observed a steady increase in hospital admissions in Metro Manila and given the imminent threat posed by both the Delta and Omicron variants.
DOH said that data from hospitals in NCR showed that 85 percent of those in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) who require ventilators are unvaccinated.
"Evidence is clear that vaccines can shield you from severe/critical COVID or dying. For those who have gotten their primary series, our guidelines now allow boosting at 3 months for those vaccinated with Astrazeneca, Moderna, Pfizer, Sinovac or Sputnik and at least 2 months for Janssen. Supplies are aplenty - vaccines are waiting for you," DOH said.
"To the 57 million plus Filipinos who have gotten themselves vaccinated, let us continue to patiently engage those who remain hesitant to take the precious jab," it added.