The daily average of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases decreased by 22 percent from Oct. 17 to 23, the Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday.

From 2,188 per day recorded from Oct. 10 to 16, the number went down to 1,714 daily in the recent week.

The latest case bulletin showed that there were 11,995 new cases and 272 verified deaths.

Of the additional deaths, the DOH said 26 occurred from Oct. 10 to 23.

In the same period, four cases were added to the tally of severe and critical infections, which went down to 650 from the previous week’s 690.

Only 23.1 percent or 581 out of the 2,520 intensive care unit (ICU) beds are in use, while 26.4 percent or 5,666 of 21,474 non-ICU beds are utilized.

To date, about 73,482,574 or 94.09 percent of the country’s target population (78,100,578) are vaccinated against Covid-19, including 79.19 percent of 8,721,357 senior citizens.

As of Oct. 23, a total of 20,472,983 have received booster shots out of the fully vaccinated population. (PNA)