The Philippines on Sunday logged 4,600 new COVID-19 cases one day before Metro Manila returns to Alert Level 3 to stop a resurgent virus.
The day's tally brought active cases to 21,418, with a total of 535 new recoveries and 25 new deaths reported.
Overall, a total of 2,851,931 COVID-19 cases have been reported since the pandemic began in March 2020, of which 2,778,943 have recovered and 51,570 died.
The capital region will be upgraded to COVID-19 Alert Level 3 starting Jan. 3 until Jan. 15 after infections increased in the days following Christmas.
Alert Level 3 means the operating capacities for restaurant dine-in, cinemas, and gyms will be reduced, and face-to-face class, funfairs, and contact sports will be prohibited.
On Friday, the government reported three local cases of the Omicron variant as it warned of a "high possibility" of local transmission during the holidays.
In total, the Philippines has 14 confirmed Omicron variant cases, the Department of Health said.
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