Philippines reports 8,292 new COVID-19 cases, total rises to 2,674,814
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E-mail Xinhua, October 11, 2021
MANILA, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 8,292 new COVID-19 infections on Monday, pushing the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 2,674,814.
The DOH also reported that 36 more people died from COVID-19 complications, bringing the country's death toll to 39,660.
Monday's caseload is the lowest since Aug. 5.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that the COVID-19 situation in the economic hub Metro Manila has improved and floated the possibility of easing the restrictions to allow more businesses to open and more people to work.
"The COVID-19 data do indicate that we are ready for a lower alert level," Roque said in a television news conference.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the number of COVID-19 cases and hospital bed occupancy in Metro Manila and other parts of the country has slowed down.
However, she said three northern and southern Philippines regions remain at high risk due to the "high to critical" hospital admission rate.
"While we see improvement in our case trends, this is not the time to be complacent," Vergeire said in an online briefing, stressing the need to "maximize our gains and continue aggressively implementing our local responses."
Independent analyst Guido David of the OCTA research group said in another television news conference that the reproduction number in Metro Manila has dropped to 0.63, adding the infection rate continues to decline.
David said that the seven-day daily average in Metro Manila has dropped below 2,000. The DOH said the number of cases in the capital region decreased 36 percent.
"It means that we managed to reverse the surge of COVID-19 cases from August to September. We are back to the situation before we imposed the hard lockdown on Aug. 6," David added.
The highly infectious Delta variant spread triggered a third wave of virus surge, prompting the government to impose hard lockdown in August.
The DOH reported its highest ever daily tally on Sept. 11, with 26,303 cases.
The Philippines, which has around 110 million population, has tested more than 20 million people since the outbreak in January 2020. Enditem
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