MANILA - The number of patients under investigation (PUIs) for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has risen to 105, a Department of Health (DOH) report at noon on Tuesday showed.

A DOH situational report showed 25 additional patients were being checked for the acute respiratory disease, with cases being reported in Calabarzon and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) for the first time.

The health department said the rise was due to improved surveillance of possible cases.

"The substantial increase in the number of PUIs is due the strengthened surveillance system and contact tracing of the Epidemiology Bureau and the expansion of PUI category coverage to the whole of China," said the report.

Of the total, 4 new PUIs were reported in Calabarzon and 1 in the Cordilleras.

Metro Manila had 9 additional PUIs, Central Visayas had 5, Western Visayas and Eastern Visayas each had 2 new cases, and 1 each in Central Luzon and the Davao region.

The DOH earlier said two Chinese travelers who had come together to the Philippines from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the virus, were confirmed to be carriers.

On Sunday, the DOH bared that a 44-year-old Chinese man died of the acute respiratory disease in Manila on Saturday, the second confirmed case here.

It was the first reported death from the virus outside China.

The man was the companion of the 38-year-old Chinese woman who was identified earlier as the Philippines' first confirmed new coronavirus case. She no longer has symptoms of the virus, which manifest as cough and fever, health officials earlier said.

The entry of the virus into the Philippines has prompted government to ban foreign travelers from all of mainland China and its territories. The public has also been scrambling for limited stocks of masks for their protection.

On Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte called for calm, saying the public should not be scared as the disease would "die a natural death."

As of Tuesday, Some 425 deaths have been recorded in China, while infections have reached over 19,000 in Chinese cities and other Asia-Pacific countries, North America, and Europe.