The Philippines on Tuesday logged 168 new COVID-19 infections, the new record low for 2021, ahead of the Christmas weekend.
This brought total active cases to 9,384. The were also 372 new recoveries and 10 new deaths based on data from the Department of Health.
Since the pandemic started, the Philippines has reported a total of 2,837,719 COVID-19 cases of which 2,777,541 recovered and 50,794 died.
Of the 168 reported cases Tuesday, 159 occurred in the last 14 days, the DOH said. Of the 10 deaths, 6 occurred in Dec., 2 in Nov., 1 in August, and 1 in May 2020 due to late encoding of death information to COVIDKaya.
A total of 179 cases were found to have tested negative and have been removed from the total case count, and moved to the recoveries tally.
Another 6 cases previously tagged as recoveries were reclassified as deaths after final validation.
The entire Philippines is under Alert Level 2 until the end of the year even after the country reported a total of three Omicron cases.
The country's third Omicron variant case in a Filipino who arrived from Qatar. The 36-year-old male Overseas Filipino Worker arrived at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport via Qatar Airways on Nov. 28, Health Usec. Maria Rosario Vergeire said.
To keep safe during holiday festivities, Filipinos are encouraged to skip the buffet and minimize gatherings. Unvaccinated kids are also urged to meet their loved ones virtually to reduce the risk of infection.
MORE ON OMICRON:
How to Deal with Anxiety, Uncertainty from Omicron the Grinch
Omicron Spreads Faster and Weakens Vaccines: WHO
Omicron Might Evade Antibodies, But That Doesn't Mean You Don't Have Immunity
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