The Philippines on Saturday tallied 7,772 new COVID-19 cases on the first day of looser quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila.
The day's total brought active cases up to 85,084. There were 156 deaths and1,634 recoveries, bringing the cumulative totals since the pandemic began to 40,580 and 2,587,881.
Overall, the Philippines confirmed 2,713,509 COVID-19 cases since March 2020. Both Bloomberg and Nikkei Asia rank the country at the bottom of their respective indices on pandemic recovery, citing slow vaccine rollouts and long-running mobility curbs.
Alert Level 3, which took effect Oct. 16, allows up to 30% resumption of businesses that are at risk of virus transmission such as restaurants, gyms and salons. It was the first easing of quarantine classification since the onset of the Delta variant outbreak in early August.
Last Oct. 15, the country started vaccinating 12 to 17 year-olds. As of early October, authorities have fully vaccinated 23 million people, versus the target 90% of its 109 million population.
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