Nearly a fifth of hospitals in the Philippines are close to full capacity as a surge in Covid-19 infections, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus, spreads across the Southeast Asian country, the health ministry has said.

Coronavirus cases in the Philippines, a country of 110 million, have been growing at a rate of around 8,000 to 10,000 infections a day over recent weeks, above the daily average of 5,700 cases reported last month, Reuters quoted the official data as saying.

“It is highly possible the cases will continue to rise even after enhanced community quarantine (ECQ),” health ministry spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said, referring to ECQ, the classification used in the capital Manila and its surrounding areas for its strictest form of lockdown.