A man wearing a face mask cycles at a market in Manila, the Philippines, Oct. 15, 2020. The Philippines reported 2,261 new daily cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, pushing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 348,698. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)
MANILA, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines reported 2,261 new daily cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, pushing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 348,698.
The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) said the number of recoveries also rose to 294,161 after 385 more patients recovered. Meanwhile, 50 more patients died from the viral disease, bringing the death toll to 6,497.
The Philippines' capital Metro Manila topped the regions in the country with the highest number of 566 daily cases on Thursday.
The DOH said over 4 million people have been tested in the country with a population of about 109 million.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said in a televised address late Wednesday night that the government has secured the source of funds for the acquisition of vaccines.
Duterte said the first to receive the vaccine would be the poor. Frontliners such as the members of the police and the military are a priority, he said.
He has expressed his trust in the vaccines being developed by China and Russia, saying the country will likely source the vaccine against COVID-19 from these countries.
Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the country's overall plan to fight COVID-19, attributed the gradual decrease in the daily number of cases "to a change in people's behavior" and the united efforts of local officials at the community level to fight COVID-19.
"We will carry out more aggressive contact tracing, testing, and treatment and isolation measures so that we can bring our active cases to the lowest manageable percentage," Galvez said in a televised briefing. Enditem