MANILA (2nd UPDATE) - The Philippines confirmed 29,828 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the country’s total to 3,417,216.

Just 3 days after breaching the 3.3 million mark, the country's tally of infections has surpassed 3.4 million.

The positivity rate was also at 41.8 percent, which was the lowest since Jan. 5 this year.

The Department of Health meanwhile also reported 36,763 new recoveries, pushing the total number of Filipinos who recovered from the disease to 3,090,164.

This means that the country has a total of 273,580 active cases as of 4 p.m. Sunday.

There were 67 new deaths from COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the country’s death toll from the disease to 53,472.

Some 136 duplicates, including 76 recoveries and 1 death, were removed from the total case count, the DOH said Monday.

An independent research group earlier said COVID-19 cases in the Philippines would not reach their peak "any time soon" since the regions outside Metro Manila have just started to experience a sharp increase in new infections.

Other regions have lagged NCR in terms of vaccination.

• Philippines: COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

Worldwide, the novel coronavirus has caused more than 349 million infections and over 5.59 million deaths since it was first reported in Wuhan, China in late 2019 according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center citing official reports.

The United States remains the most badly affected country with over 70.5 million infections and over 865,000 deaths.

Taking into account excess mortality linked to COVID-19, the World Health Organization has estimated that the overall death toll could be two to three times higher.

The Philippines’ first COVID-19 case was a 38-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, China.

The first COVID-19 death outside of China, was also recorded in the Philippines last year.

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