MANILA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,038 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 3,661,049.
The DOH said 51 more people died from COVID-19 complications, pushing the country's death toll to 56,401. Of the new deaths, the DOH added that 11 died this year, with the rest last year.
The number of patients ill with the highly contagious disease dropped to 52,961 from Saturday's 53,934. The country's positivity rate dropped to 5 percent from 5.3 percent the previous day.
The DOH has reported under 2,000 new cases for nine straight days as the wave of infections triggered by the Omicron variant of COVID-19, which peaked in mid-January, was ebbing.
The Philippines has seen four COVID-19 waves since the pandemic began in January 2020. The country reported the highest single-day tally on Jan. 15, with 39,004 new cases.
The Philippines, which has around 110 million population, has tested over 26 million people. ■