Havana, Jun 28 (IANS): Cuba has registered 2,698 new cases of Covid-19 in the past day, the highest daily figure since March of last year, the Ministry of Public Health reported on Sunday.

The ministry's director of hygiene and epidemiology, Francisco Duran, said that the country's total number of cases has reached 182,354 and the death toll to 1,241, with another 10 fatalities reported in the last day.

The province of Matanzas, which reported 657 new cases, has the highest infection incidence rate in the country, with 437.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by the Camaguey, with 401.3, and Ciego de Avila, with 339.3, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Havana, which for several months was the epicenter of the disease on the island, has seen a decrease in cases after the ministry began an emergency vaccination program using the vaccine candidate Abdala, with the aim of vaccinating all the city's 2.2 million residents.

The emergency vaccination program continues in the provinces of Pinar del Rio, Matanzas, Santiago de Cuba, and the Special Municipality of Isla de la Juventud, in which both Abdala and the vaccine candidate Soberana-02 are being used.

So far, 5.49 million doses of Soberana-02 and Abdala have been administered, and just over 2.63 million Cubans have received at least one dose of vaccine.