Manila, Feb 25 (IANS): The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,671 new Covid-19 infections on Friday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 3,658,892.

The DOH said 59 more people died from Covid-19 complications, taking the death toll to 56,224, with three testing laboratories failing to submit data, Xinhua news agency reported.

The number of active cases rose to 55,140 from Thursday's 55,079. The positivity rate dropped to 5.6 per cent from 6.3 per cent the previous day.

The DOH has reported under 2,000 new cases for six straight days as the wave of infections triggered by the Omicron variant of Covid, which peaked in mid-January, was ebbing.

The Philippines has seen four Covid waves since the pandemic began in January 2020. The country reported the highest single-day tally on January 15, with 39,004 new cases.

The Philippines, which has around 110 million population, has tested over 26 million people for Covid, so far.