THE Philippines reported 18,449 new Covid-19 cases Monday, raising the total number of infections to 2.509 million.

The Department of Health said that 97 percent of the new cases, or 17,953, occurred from September 14-27, 2021.

Of these cases, 17 percent, or 3,060 came from the National Capital Region, 2,465 came from the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), and 1,922 or 11 percent came from Central Luzon.

The release of the new cases was delayed by more than five hours because of the breakdown of the CovidKaya system, which for three days has not reported deaths.

The DOH said that it will report the number of backlogged deaths in separate advisories in the coming days.

Total recoveries are at 2.313 million.

Hospital utilization remains at 75 percent occupied for intensive care unit beds, 64 percent for isolation beds, and 68 percent for ward beds nationwide.