BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

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MANILA -- The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines surged to 356,618 after the Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,379 new cases on Sunday.

The DOH said that the number of recoveries also surged to 310,158 after 14,941 more patients recovered. Meanwhile, 50 more patients died from the viral disease, bringing the death toll to 6,652.

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ULAN BATOR -- Mongolia reported four new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total tally of infections to 324, the country's health ministry said Sunday.

The newly-confirmed cases are returnees from abroad who were under quarantine in the country's capital Ulan Bator, the ministry said in a statement.

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HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) reported four additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, taking Hong Kong's total tally to 5,241.

Two of the newly-reported cases were imported and the remaining two were epidemiologically linked with local cases, the CHP said.

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GENEVA -- A total of 392,471 new COVID-19 infections were reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday, a record high since the onset of the pandemic, taking the total number of confirmed cases worldwide to 39,196,259.

According to a tally kept by the WHO, the United States had the most daily infections on Saturday, with 63,044 new cases reported. As of Saturday, the country has registered 7,896,895 total confirmed cases, the highest worldwide.

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SANTIAGO -- Chile has performed the highest number of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests in Latin America, Health Minister Enrique Paris said on Saturday.

While presenting a report on the country's fight against COVID-19, Paris said that 3,857,820 PCR tests have been carried out so far, averaging out at 196,660 tests per million inhabitants, which is "close to developed countries."

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UNITED NATIONS -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday called on the international community to stand in solidarity with people living in poverty.

"The COVID-19 pandemic is a double crisis for the world's poorest people," the UN chief said in his message to the international day, which falls on Oct. 17 annually. Enditem

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