MANILA - Davao City has recorded over 100 coronavirus cases in January, which an expert said Thursday could be a surge following the holidays.

Dr. Ashley Lopez, focal person of Davao City's COVID-19 Task Force, said the city started to experience a spike in infections on Jan. 7, logging 131 cases. The city only tallied an average of 50 to 60 cases daily in December, he added.

"We recorded more than 100 plus cases starting Jan. 7 because we are experiencing this post-holiday surge," he said in Bisaya.

Records form the Department of Health (DOH) showed Davao City had additional 100 COVID-19 cases on Jan. 1; 143 new cases on Jan. 9; 140 new cases on Jan. 11; and 137 new cases on Jan. 12.

Lopez earlier said a surge occurs when the city reaches up to more than 100 daily cases.

"This was the time when people went outside to shop and party during Christmas. This is now the effect of the Christmas surge," he said.

Lopez also bared that vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. urged them to check for the presence of a new, more contagious COVID-19 variant following the rise of infections.

"He said, just to be sure, we have to submit some specimen to RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine) to perform genomic test," he said.

— Report from Hernel Tocmo