Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases reached a new record high of 19, 441 on Saturday.

There were 167 persons who died from COVID-19, bringing total fatalities to 33, 008, the Department of Health added.

A total of 19, 191 persons got well, to raise total recoveries reached 1,760, 013.

At the ''Laging Handa'' virtual forum earlier, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the Department of Health to increase '' in the coming days.''

''Close to 20K already. Stay safe everyone. There is likely to be high numbers in some region,'' said Guido David of OCTA Research in his Twitter account.

The positivity rate jumped to a record 27.5 percent as of August 26.

ICU bed use is at 74 percent nationwide while it is at 73 percent for the NCR. DMS