MANILA (UPDATE) — The total number of people who died due to COVID-19 in the Philippines surpassed 18,000 Friday with 108 new deaths, while recoveries also breached the 1 million-mark, the health department announced on Friday.

The country's death toll due to the novel coronavirus stood at 18,099, accounting for 1.66 percent of the overall tally.

Friday's new fatalities include 64 cases initially tagged as recovered, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

Meanwhile, there were 7,733 new COVID-19 cases, pushing the country's total recorded infections to 1,087,885.

According to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group, the day's cases is the highest in 5 days.

All laboratories "were able to submit their data," according to the DOH.

The number of people still battling the disease reached 66,626, comprising 6.1 percent of the country's total reported cases.

ABS-CBN Data Analytics head Edson Guido said the remaining active infections rose for the 2nd straight day.

Recoveries also increased by 4,227 to 1,003,160, making up the majority or 92.2 percent of the Philippines' running tally.

The ABS-CBN IRG noted that the day's recuperations is the lowest in a week or since April 30.

Since April 18, the DOH has started enforcing its daily recovery tagging, veering away from its weekly "mass recoveries" during the weekend to supposedly address skewed data.

• READ: PH reports 7,379 more COVID-19 cases, over 21,000 new recoveries

The mass recovery system involved tagging asymptomatic and mild COVID-19 cases as recovered after 14 days.

Out of 50,815 people who underwent testing for the virus on May 5, 14.1 percent were found positive for it.

Guido said the positive rate for the said date was the lowest since Mar. 16.

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As of May 4, government data showed that a total of 320,586 Filipinos are already fully-vaccinated against COVID-19, having received their 2nd dose.

Based on ABS-CBN News' monitoring, the figure accounts for 0.46 percent of the government's 70 million target for this year.

• READ: More than 320,000 Filipinos fully vaccinated vs COVID-19, says DOH