MANILA (UPDATE) - The Philippines reported 2,163 new coronavirus infections on Monday, bringing the country's cumulative total of COVID-19 cases to 502,736.

The Department of Health (DOH) said the tally, which is the highest in more than 2 months, does not include data from 4 laboratories that failed to submit their results on time.

The DOH said it will observe this week’s cases to see if the increase that began last week is due to the spread of the disease during the holiday season.

• PH coronavirus cases may reach 530,000 by end-January: OCTA Research

Topping the list of areas with the most number of additional COVID-19 cases are Davao City with 134, Cagayan province with 100, Quezon City with 99, Leyte province with 93, and Cavite province with 75.

Davao City has repeatedly been included in the top areas with new infections. The DOH previously said this is due to non-compliance with health standards.

• READ: Poor health standards among causes of rising COVID-19 cases in Davao - DOH

The DOH also reported 14 new COVID-related deaths, or a total of 9,909 fatalities.

LOWER RECOVERIES

Meanwhile, 2 new recovered patients were recorded, bringing the number of total recoveries to 465,988.

This is the lowest number of recoveries since April last year, according to the ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group.

Of the 26,839 active cases, 85.8% have mild symptoms, 6.1% are asymptomatic, 4.9% are in critical condition, 2.8% have severe symptoms, and 0.44% have moderate symptoms.

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The DOH reported that it removed 4 cases, 2 tagged as recovered, from the official tally due to duplicate entries. It also reclassified 3 recoveries, which turned out to be deaths.

The ABS-CBN Data Analytics Team said the adjustments resulted in the reduction of the tally of total recoveries from Sunday's 465,991.

MORE CASES OUTSIDE NCR

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said cases have shot up to more than 1,500 per day last week, as opposed to just 1,000 to 1,300 daily in December.

Vergeire explained that there are other factors to consider such as the closure of laboratories during the holidays and the “behavior of people.”

“Titignan pa rin natin kung magtutuloy-tuloy ito so that we can determine kung ito na nga talaga ang surge,” she said, referring to the so-called holiday surge due to the projected increase in social gatherings during the Christmas and New Year's break.

(We’ll have to see if this continues so we can determine if this is really a surge.)

Vergeire said the spike in cases is mostly seen outside Metro Manila and that they are monitoring the situation in Cebu, Region II and the Cordillera Administrative Region, among other areas.

• READ: DOH says COVID-19 cases rising outside NCR, monitors possible post-holiday surge

The Philippines confirmed its first COVID-19 case on Jan. 30 last year in a Chinese woman who arrived from Wuhan City, China where the disease is believed to have first emerged.

Last week, the new UK COVID-19 variant, which is said to be more transmissible, has been detected in the country.

• UK COVID-19 variant now in the Philippines, says DOH

Currently, there are almost 40.7 million people with COVID-19 worldwide.

Since the start of the pandemic, more than 95 million people have been infected by the COVID-19 virus, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus dashboard.

Of those, 2.03 million have died and more than 52.3 million have recovered.