MANILA, Philippines (Updated 4:41 p.m.) — The Philippines reached another grim milestone three days before Christmas with its death toll from COVID-19 surpassing 9,000 on Tuesday.
The Department of Health reported 66 new fatalities due to the respiratory disease, the highest single-day death count since December 8 when 98 deaths were reported.
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Cases of COVID-19 in the Philippines now total 462,815 after the DOH reported 1,314 new infections.
The government has been urging the public to remain vigilant and continue observing safety protocols as health authorities were already seeing indications of possible surge.
Most of the new infections were reported in Quezon City where 93 more people got COVID-19, followed by Rizal (89), Benguet (78), Bulacan (61) and Davao City (60).
The DOH also reported 247 new recoveries, bringing the total number of COVID-19 survivors to 429,419.
With the new infections, deaths and recoveries, the number of active cases stands at 24,375.
The Philippines has the second highest largest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia behind neighboring Indonesia.
Globally, the novel coronavirus has infected over 77 million people and caused 1.7 million deaths since it was first reported in Wuhan, China late last year.