Manila [Philippines], September 13 (ANI/Xinhua): The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 20,745 new COVID-19 infections on Monday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 2,248,071.

The DOH also reported 163 coronavirus-related deaths, raising the death toll to 35,307.

On Saturday, the DOH reported its highest ever daily tally of 26,303 cases.

The Philippines, which has around 110 million population, has tested over 18 million people since the outbreak in January 2020.

The Philippine General Hospital (PGH), the country's largest COVID-19 referral hospital, has been facing a medical workers shortage.

"A lot of our healthcare workers are getting sick. They are tired. We have a manpower problem," PGH spokesperson Jonas del Rosario said in a television interview.

Meanwhile, he said more severely and critically patients kept coming in and need hospital care. "We are operating in full capacity, so our manpower is stretched," he added.

Del Rosario said that the PGH, which has 320 COVID-19 beds, is beyond its capacity.

He added that about 200 patients are "waiting in the wings" to be admitted or transferred to the PGH.

"It is impossible to admit more patients as our patients require long days in the hospital because most are severely or critically ill. We have to tell our patients to look for other hospitals, but unfortunately, other hospitals are also fully occupied," he added.

According to the latest DOH data released Monday, the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant is fast outpacing other strains in the Philippines.

The DOH has detected 640 additional Delta cases, raising the number of cases in the country to 2,708, adding that there are now 2,448 Alpha variant cases and 2,725 Beta cases in the country.

The Philippines has administered over 38.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. More than 16.7 million people have been fully vaccinated so far, out of the 77-million target population. (ANI/Xinhua)