Philippines health official says COVID-19 cases start to peak

The steady uptick in the COVID-19 infections in the Philippines signals the start of the peak of cases, the Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) said on Monday.

"Right now, (we see) that the number of cases is continuously increasing," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told a television interview. "We can see that this is really the start in the peak in the number of cases."

Vergeire said the Southeast Asian country is seeing a trend similar to what happened in September 2021 and January 2022.

The Philippines reported the highest single-day tally on Jan. 15 this year, with 39,004 new cases. The Philippines has seen four COVID-19 waves since the pandemic hit the country in January 2020. Vergeire said the DOH recorded around 2,458 cases across the country last week. In Metro Manila, she said, the number of cases has doubled already.

The Philippines has fully vaccinated over 70 million people. The Philippines now has 3,696,264 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 60,467 deaths.