Philippines to relax COVID curbs even as cases hit record levels

Caught between a struggling economy and a health emergency, the Philippines is expected to ease COVID-19 restrictions from Wednesday to allow more business activities to resume, even as the country posts record numbers of daily cases and a test positivity rate of almost 30 percent. The Philippines reported a record 22,415 COVID-19 cases on Monday, with a positivity rate of 28.8 percent. At least 103 more deaths were reported, lifting the country’s official death toll to more than 35,000.