The Philippines now has 518,407 confirmed cases of COVID-19 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,245 new infections on Wednesday, January 27.

The reported cases on Wednesday is the highest since November 8, when the country logged 2,442 cases.

Meanwhile, coronavirus deaths continue to rise with 90 new fatalities, raising the death toll to 10,481. Recoveries grew by 140 to 475,542.

Of the total cases, 32,384 are active.

Baguio City and Cebu City have the highest number of new cases, both at 121, followed by Davao City (102), Quezon City (87), and Pangasinan (81).

The Octa Research group said on Wednesday morning that they did not see the effect of the holiday surge and Traslacion in virus epicenter Metro Manila.

The spike in the new daily case count comes after the detection of the more infectious United Kingdom (UK) variant in the country.

It also comes at a time when the Department of Tourism (DOT) is investigating a “reported party at a DOT-accredited establishment in Baguio City.”

Meanwhile, health authorities are still figuring out the source of infection in Bontoc, Mountain Province, after the DOH detected 12 cases of the UK variant there.

Baguio City and Mountain Province are in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), which has been under monitoring due to the rising COVID-19 cases and increasing hospital occupancy rate.

The UK variant known as B117 was first detected in the United Kingdom in September 2020. In November, around a quarter of the reported COVID-19 cases in the country were found to be of the new variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. (READ: New COVID-19 variant: What we know so far)

The Philippines has so far detected 17 cases of the UK variant. – Rappler.com