The country’s health system is “choking,” the Department of Health said Monday, as the Philippines logged a record-high 10,016 new COVID-19 infections even as stringent quarantine restrictions came into effect.

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It was the third straight day when new COVID-19 cases exceeded 9,000, bringing the country’s total number of cases to 731,894.Monday’s tally was the highest daily case count since the pandemic began.

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Meanwhile, health care utilization rates were reaching 63 percent in Metro Manila and 58 percent in Calabarzon, DOH Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire said.

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Active cases—those being treated or in isolation—continued to climb to 115,495, which was 15.8 percent of the total cases.

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Of the active cases, 95.9 percent are mild; 2.4 percent are asymptomatic; 0.7 percent are critical; 0.7 percent are severe; and 0.41 percent are moderate.

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Sixteen new fatalities brought the COVID-19 death toll to 13,186, which is 1.8 percent of the total number of cases.

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The DOH also reported that 78 persons recovered from the disease recently, bringing the total recoveries to 603,213, which is 82.4 percent of the total.

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Nationwide, 58 percent of the total ICU bed capacity is in use; 45 percent of the total isolation bed capacity is in use; 45 percent of the total ward bed capacity is in use; and 39 percent of all ventilators are in use.

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In the National Capital Region, 76 percent of the total ICU bed capacity is in use; 70 percent of the total isolation bed capacity is in use; 59 percent of the total ward bed capacity is in use; and 57 percent of all ventilators are in use.

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The DOH said Monday the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) over Metro Manila and neighboring provinces was reimposed to stop active COVID-19 cases from climbing to 430,000 by the end of April.

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DOH spokesperson Vergeire said projections showed that “further exponential increase [was] likely” if the government did not impose “harder lockdowns or harder measures.”

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“They said that if we don’t implement immediate and harder measures, we will see 430,000 cases by April 30 nationally and 350,000 cases in NCR alone by the end of April,” Vergeire said in a briefing.

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The country’s health system is “choking,” she said, as Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, and Laguna—the provinces part of the “bubble”—are already at high to critical risk based on the two-week growth rate and average daily attack rate of COVID-19.

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“Our main objective in implementing stricter community quarantine is for us to have our health system capacity be manageable enough,” she said.Areas in the “bubble” will be under ECQ from March 29 to April 4.

Vergeire said its effects will not be immediately evident due to the incubation period of the coronavirus, which takes up to 14 days.

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“This ECQ aims to slow down the surge of cases, stop the spread of the variants, allow the health system to recover, and of course, to protect more lives,” she said.