The Philippines, battling surges driven by the Delta variant, on Monday reported more than 20,000 new cases of COVID-19 for the third day in a row.
The day's jump of 20,475 infections brings active cases to 180,293, with the cumulative total since the pandemic began now at 2,248,071. There were 163 deaths and 22,290 new recoveries, bringing the running totals to 35,307 and 2,032,471.
The MECQ in Metro Manila is expected to last until Sept. 15, with granular lockdowns set to be piloted as early as Sept. 16. Under this system, quarantine classification will only be ECQ or GCQ with the latter being implemented in tandem with an alert level system.
Some cities have opened vaccine registration to those aged 12 to 17 years old as more of the younger population get infected with the highly transmissible Delta variant.
