Philippines reports 18,638 new COVID-19 cases

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines reported 18,638 new coronavirus infections on Friday, bringing the total number of cases to 3,511,491.

Of these new infections, 98% or 18,281 occured in the last two weeks, according to the Department of Health.

The DOH said the top regions with the most number of new infections in the past 14 days were Calabarzon (2,379 or 13%), Metro Manila (2,211 or 12%) and Western Visayas (1,969 or 11%).

The DOH also said that of the total number of infections, 231,658 are still active.

It also tallied 68 more fatalities, bringing the death toll to 53,801, while 13,106 more recovered, pushing the total number of recoveries to 3,226,032.

Looser borders

• The Philippines decided to loosen border controls as the Omicron-driven surge that started late December showed signs of tapering off.
   
• It suspended the "green-yellow-red list" system, which is used to classify countries, territories and jurisdictions based on their COVID-19 risk levels.
   
• Beginning February 1, fully-vaccinated travelers no longer need to quarantine and would only have to present a negative RT-PCR test taken within 48 hours prior to departure from the country of origin.
   
• Fully-vaccinated nationals of non-visa required countries will be allowed to enter the Philippines starting February 10.