MANILA, Dec. 18 (Xinhua): The Philippines reported 973 new Covid-19 infections on Sunday, pushing the number of confirmed cases in the South-East Asian country to 4,056,239.
The Department of Health (DOH) said the number of active cases dipped to 17,900, while 30 more patients died from Covid-19 complications, pushing the country's death toll to 65,064.
Metro Manila, the capital region with over 13 million people, tallied 406 new cases.
The DOH said the Philippines saw a steep increase in cases at the beginning of the year, with the emergence of Omicron and its subvariants averaging nearly 35,000 cases a day.
"While we saw another increase in cases in July, the increase was not sustained despite the loosening of restrictions as cases began to decrease," DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
As of Dec. 15, she said cases are plateauing, with the current seven-day moving average at 1,121 per day. She added that hospital admission "remained within our capacity" and manageable.
The Philippines reported its highest Covid-19 single-day tally of 39,004 new cases on Jan. 15. The country, with a population of around 110 million, has fully vaccinated over 73.8 million people. - Xinhua
