MANILA (UDPATE) — The Philippines' health department on Wednesday confirmed 84 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the country, bringing the overall tally to 636.

The agency also said that the total number of recoveries rose to 26 as 6 more patients have been cleared of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

They are:

- PH95, a 64-year-old Filipino female from Batangas, who recently traveled to Italy and experienced symptoms on March 6. The patient, who is hypertensive, was confirmed COVID-19 positive on March 14 and was discharged from the hospital on March 24.

- PH10, a 57-year-old Filipino male from Quezon City, who recently traveled to Taiwan. The patient, who is diabetic and asthmatic, showed symptoms on Feb. 20, tested positive for COVID-19 on March 8, and was discharged from the hospital on March 23.

- PH18, a 41-year-old Filipino male from Pasig City, who recently traveled to Taiwan. He experienced symptoms on Feb. 29, was confirmed positive on March 9, and was released from the hospital on March 24.

- PH82, a 66-year-old Filipino male from Quezon City with no recent travel abroad. He experienced symptoms on March 5 and tested positive for COVID-19 on March 14. He was discharged from the hospital on March 24.

- PH31, a 28-year-old Filipino female from San Juan City who was exposed to a known COVID-19 case. She experienced symptoms on March 1 and tested positive for COVID-19 on March 10. She was discharged from the hospital on March 22.

- PH23, a 30-year-old Filipino female from San Juan City who does not have recent travel history or exposure to a known COVID-19 case. She experienced symptoms on March 3, was confirmed positive for COVID-19 on March 7, and was discharged from the hospital on March 24.

Meanwhile, three more COVID-19 patients have died, bringing the countrywide tally of fatalities due to the disease to 38.

These include PH319, a 56-year-old Filipino male from Quezon City who was confirmed positive for COVID-19 on March 21. He did not travel abroad recently or was exposed to a known COVID-19 case.

The patient, who had hypertension and diabetes, died on March 22 due to pneumonia secondary to COVID-19.

The second new fatality succumbed to the disease on March 16. He was PH326, 57 years old, from Caloocan City. The patient, who had hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia, also did not have any travel or exposure history.

He was only confirmed coronavirus positive on March 21, five days after dying from pneumonia due to COVID-19.

The latest reported fatality is PH29, an 82-year-old Filipino female from Marikina City, who recently traveled to the United States and was exposed to a COVID-19 case.

She tested positive for COVID-19 on March 10 and was known to have hypertension, diabetes and valvular heart disease.

She died on March 23 due to septic and cardiogenic shock, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) secondary to COVID-19, pneumonia, acute renal failure secondary to sepsis.

ARDS and organ failure are among the conditions seen in severe cases of COVID-19.

Since March 17, the Philippine main island of Luzon has been on enhanced community quarantine to prevent the further spread of COVID-19.

The Department of Health has said that the spike in COVID-19 cases is due to the increased capacity of the country to test suspected patients. This after 100,000 and 3,000 test kits arrived from China and Singapore, respectively, and four more subnational laboratories were opened for COVID-19 testing.

The DOH said the public should expect to see the actual increase or decrease of cases in the coming days once laboratories are done testing backlog samples.