(CNN Philippines) Metro Manila – The country broke its record for the highest single day tally of new COVID-19 cases on Saturday after the Department of Health (DOH) logged 26,458 new infections.

The count surpassed the 26,303 cases recorded on Sept. 11 last year.

The DOH said 99% or 26,277 of the newly confirmed cases were detected within the last 14 days. The top three contributing regions remain unchanged – with Metro Manila coming in first with 16,139, followed by Calabarzon with 5,387, and Central Luzon with 2,281.

The positivity rate – or percentage of tested people who yielded positive results – also reached a new record high of 43.7%, based on 77,004 tests reported on Jan. 6.

A rate of above 20% is at critical level while below 3% indicates there is adequate testing, according to US nonprofit Covid Act Now. The World Health Organization suggests a positivity rate of below 5% for an area that has controlled the infection.

With the alarming jump in daily COVID-19 cases, the total count is now at 2,936,875.

The number of active cases breached 100,000 for the first time after nearly three months with 102,017 people currently sick. This represents 3.5% of the case tally.