MANILA, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines reported 973 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday, pushing the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast 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. ■
