MANILA, Philippines — The total number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country has surpassed 261,000 after the Department of Health (DOH) recorded 3,372 new confirmed cases.
As of 4 p.m. on Sunday, the country’s caseload was recorded at 261,216. Data from the DOH also showed 49,277 active cases nationwide.
Of the newly reported cases, 85 percent or 2,850 cases were recorded over the past 14 days.
The top regions with cases reported in the past two weeks are the National Capital Region, Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) and Central Luzon, the DOH noted.
The DOH likewise announced 20,472 recoveries, bringing the total number of patients who have recovered from the disease to 207,568.
The department also reported 79 deaths. This pushes the COVID-19 death toll to 4,371.
Of the 74 deaths, 57 occurred in September, 14 in August, six in July and one in March. Majority of these newly-reported deaths were recorded in the National Capital Region, according to the DOH.
Upon validation, the DOH also found 19 duplicates which were removed from the total caseload, including 12 recovered cases.
Moreover, the DOH said there were eight cases that were previously reported as recovered but after final validation, they were seven deaths and one active case.
Globally, over 28 million individuals have so far been infected by the new coronavirus, which originated from Wuhan City in China’s Hubei province late last year. More than 906,000 have died from the disease across the world.
The virus causes mild or moderate symptoms such as fever and cough for most people. It causes serious illnesses such as pneumonia on older adults and people with existing health issues.