Manila, Feb 27 (IANS): The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,038 new Covid 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 complications, pushing the country's death toll to 56,401. Of the new deaths, the DOH added that 11 people died in 2022, Xinhua news agency reported.

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 per cent from 5.3 per cent 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, 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 country, which has around 110 million population, has tested over 26 million people.