(CNN Philippines) Metro Manila — The country reached an all-time high in new COVID-19 cases recorded in a day after 17,231 more people were reported infected, the Department of Health announced on Friday.

The daily case count broke the previous record of 15,310 new infections logged on April 2.

The DOH case bulletin counted 1,807,800 cases in total, with 6.8% or 123,251 active or currently sick. At least 94.1% of active cases have mild symptoms, 3.2% have no symptoms, 1.2% have severe symptoms, 0.86% are in moderate condition and 0.7% are in critical condition.

The death toll also climbed to 31,198 after 317 more people lost their lives to the disease. The fatality count is equivalent to 1.73% of the total number of cases.

Meanwhile, 5,595 persons recovered, bringing the survivor tally to 1,653,351 or 91.5% of the COVID-19 total.

The DOH said it reclassified 222 survivors – 221 into fatalities and one into an active case – after validation, and deleted 434 duplicate cases, including 424 recoveries.

The total excludes data from two laboratories due to failure to submit their reports on time. These laboratories contributed an average of 0.03% of tested samples and 0.085 of positive individuals in the last 14 days, the DOH added.

The positivity rate or percentage of people who tested positive also reached a record high at 26.1% based on 64,934 tests reported on August 18. The rate is within critical level and well beyond US nonprofit Covid Act Now’s positivity rate benchmark of below 3%, which indicates there is adequate testing in an area.

The OCTA research team uses Covid Act Now as basis for projections. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization says the positivity rate should be below 5% to show the infection is under control.

The record high numbers come just a day before the National Capital Region eases to the more relaxed modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ).

The Inter-Agency Task Force placed Metro Manila and Laguna under MECQ from Saturday until the end of the month. Bataan will also be under MECQ from Aug. 23 to 31.