MANILA (UPDATE) - The Philippines now has more than half a million COVID-19 cases as the Department of Health reported 1,895 new cases on Sunday bringing the country’s total to 500,577.

The Department of Health also reported 5,868 new recoveries pushing the total number of Filipinos who recovered from the disease to 465,991.

This meant that the country has a total of 24,691 active cases as of 4 p.m. Sunday.

Eleven more deaths were reported from the illness, bringing COVID-19’s death toll in the Philippines to 9,895.

Davao City had the largest number of new cases at 107, followed by Quezon City with 106. Isabela Province meanwhile had 65 new cases, Pampanga had 63, and Bulacan had 62.

A new strain of the novel coronavirus, which was first reported in the United Kingdom, has been spreading globally.

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This new and more transmissible UK variant has already been detected in the Philippines, the DOH said last week.

The government has said it is eyeing to use 4 COVID-19 vaccines from Russia and China by the first 3 months of 2021.

• DFA: China OKs P3.72-B grant to PH, aims to donate 500k COVID vaccine doses

Worldwide, the novel coronavirus has infected over 94.49 million people and caused over 2 million deaths since it first emerged in Wuhan, China in late 2019 according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

The United States remains the most badly affected country with over 23.75 million infections and over 395,000 deaths.

India follows the US with 10.56 million infections. Brazil ranks third with 8.56 million infections but is second in terms of deaths with over 209,000 COVID-19 fatalities.

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