MANILA, Philippines — The number of coronavirus disease cases in the country is now at 286,743 as the Department of Health reported additional 3,311 cases of infection on Sunday.
As of 4 p.m., the DOH also reported additional 20,021 recoveries (625 from routine reports and 19,396 time-based recoveries), which bring the total number of patients who have recovered from the disease to 229,865.
Meanwhile, there are 55 additional deaths logged, taking the total fatality count to 4,984.
With the recoveries and deaths removed from the tally, there are now 51,894 active cases of COVID-19 in the country, according to the DOH.
Of the additional cases of infection reported, 2,774 or 84 percent occurred within the last two weeks or from September 7 to 20.
The top regions with new confirmed cases in the said period were Metro Manila at 1,182 cases or 43 percent of new cases, Calabarzon with 555 cases or 20 percent, and Western Visayas with 299 cases or 11 percent.
Of the 55 additional deaths, 33 occurred in September, 17 in August, and five in July.
The breakdown of newly-reported deaths is as follows: Metro Manila at 29 deaths, Central Visayas at six, Western Visayas at five, Calabarzon at four, Bicol Region and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao at three each, Ilocos Region at two, and Central Luzon, Eastern Visayas, and Caraga with one additional fatality each.
According to DOH, 29 duplicates were removed from the total case count. Of this number, 14 recoveries and one death have been removed. However, one case was reactivated after further validation.
Twenty-five cases previously tagged as recovered were reclassified to deaths while three others were reclassified to active cases after final validation.
Seven laboratories were not able to submit their data to the COVID-19 Data Repository System (CDRS) on Saturday, September 19, according to the health department.