QUITO, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador once again surpassed 1,000 infections of the novel coronavirus in the span of one day, registering 1,061 cases in the last 24 hours and climbing to an accumulated 222,567 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) reported on Tuesday.

In its daily report, the MSP also said there were 10 deaths in the same period, for a total of 9,610 confirmed deaths.

Ecuador is registering a sustained increase in infections since June, when it relaxed its three-month-long quarantine.

The virus is spreading in Ecuador's 24 provinces, including 13 with the highest rate of community transmission, according to the MSP report. The capital Quito, the current epicenter of the country's pandemic, had a total of 71,989 cases as of Tuesday.

On Monday, the Emergency Operations Committee, which is handling the health crisis at the national level, asked the country's 221 municipalities to strengthen prevention measures after the first case of the novel coronavirus variant first identified in the United Kingdom was confirmed in Ecuador.