The Philippines will ease coronavirus restrictions in the capital Manila despite record infection numbers, officials said Tuesday, as the country seeks to spur economic activity. 

Restaurants, churches and beauty salons in the capital region will open at lower capacities from Thursday to get tens of thousands more people back to work. 

"We should strive for total health and this can only be realized by carefully balancing our COVID-19 response by considering both the health of our people and the economic health of the nation," President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman Harry Roque said.