Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases were lower than Saturday's all-time high on Sunday but came in as the second highest

The positivity rate is at an all-time high of 27.9 percent based on reports on August 27, the Department of Health said in its case bulletin.

There were 18, 528 COVID-19 cases, down from the record 19, 441 the previous day.

The positivity rate, according to an August 27 report, was at 27.9 percent out of 66, 225 tested.

''The positivity rate is alarming,'' said Guido David of OCTA Research in an interview over dzBB.

David said the reproduction number is at 1.37 for the whole country and 1.47 for the National Capital Region. The NCR number, which has been declining for a few weeks, to 1.45 rose for the first time Sunday.

''Because the (reproduction) number is more than I, cases will still go up. Maybe we will see cases going down in the second week of September based on the current trend,'' said David

Total cases are 1, 954, 023 out of which active cases are 143, 221. Mild cases account for 95.3 percent of active cases, followed by 2 percent asymptomatic and 1.1 percent severe.

There were 101 deaths, bringing total fatalities to 33, 109.

A total of 17, 922 persons recovered, resulting in total recoveries of 1, 777, 693.

ICU bed utilization went down to 66 percent in the NCR while it was 71 percent for the entire country. DMS