MANILA — The Department of Health on Friday announced 96 new COVID-19 cases in the Philippines, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 803.

The DOH reported 9 additional fatalities, raising the COVID-19 death toll to 54.

There were also 3 new recovered patients. The Philippines now has 31 COVID-19 recoveries.

The three recoveries include PH4 (patient No. 4), a 48-year-old Filipino male from Taguig City who recently traveled to Japan. He experienced symptoms on March 3 and tested positive for COVID-19 on March 5. He was considered the first COVID-19 case in the Philippines.

He was discharged on March 19. He later wrote about his experience on social media.

• READ: First COVID-19 Pinoy patient in PH warns vs ignorance, inaction

The other two are PH66, a 25-year-old Filipino male from Pasig City who was exposed to COVID-19 patients, and PH42, a 51-year-old Filipino male from Pasig City who also recently traveled to Japan.

PH66 experienced symptoms on March 7 and was confirmed positive for COVID-19 on March 13. He was discharged on March 25. Meanwhile, PH42 experienced symptoms on March 5, tested positive on March 11 and was discharged on March 26.

DOH releases case details on COVID-19 patients @ABSCBNNews pic.twitter.com/jYblJW07bp

— Kristine Sabillo (@kristinesabillo) March 27, 2020

The nine new fatalities are as follows:

• PH366, a 63-year-old Filipino male from Muntinlupa City with no travel history. He tested positive for COVID-19 on March 21 and died on March 23 due to acute respiratory failure, sepsis, pneumonia and COVID-19. He had asthma, hypertension, atherosclerosis, and coronary artery disease.
• PH637, a 75-year-old Filipino male from Quezon City who is related to a known COVID-19 case. His test came back positive on March 25, six days after he died due to acute respiratory failure, pneumonia and acute kidney injury. He had hypertension, diabetes, tongue cancer, cardiovascular disease and benign prostatic hypertrophy.
• PH571, a 72-year-old Filipino female from Muntinlupa City with no travel or exposure history. She tested positive on March 23 and died on March 26 due to septic shock and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) secondary to pneumonia. She had hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and acute kidney injury.
• PH178, a 74-year-old Filipino male from Manila with no travel or exposure history. The patient, who had hypertension, tested positive on March 16 and died on March 19 due to ARDS secondary to pneumonia and COVID-19.
• PH389, a 71-year-old Filipino female from Quezon City with no travel history. She died on March 17 due to acute respiratory failure, sepsis and pneumonia. The patient, who had hypertension and diabetes, was only confirmed positive for COVID-19 on March 22, 5 days after her death.
• PH462, an 83-year-old Filipino female from Cavite with no travel history. She died on March 17 due to acute respiratory failure, pneumonia and acute myocardial infarction or heart attack. Her test results showing that she was positive for COVID-19 arrived on March 22, 5 days after she died.
• PH437, a 57-year-old Filipino male from Manila with no travel history. The patient, who was hypertensive and had cardiovascular disease, tested positive for COVID-19 on March 22, 4 days after he died due to cardiogenic shock, acute coronary syndrome, dilated cardiomyopathy, atherosclerotic heart disease, heart failure, and acute respiratory failure secondary to pneumonia.
• PH401, a 62-year-old Filipino male from Manila who was related to a COVID-19 patient. The patient, who had heart disease and diabetes, tested positive on March 23, a day after he died due to acute respiratory failure secondary to pneumonia.
• PH306, a 67-year-old Filipino female from Quezon City with unknown travel and exposure history. She tested positive for COVID-19 on March 21 and died on March 26 due to acute respiratory disease secondary to COVID-19. She had hypertensive cardiovascular disease, acute kidney injury, asthma and prediabetes.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the country will see a continued increase in the cases as its laboratories now have more test kits and the capability to run COVID-19 tests.

The DOH also said it has distributed 200,000 surgical masks, 4,596 bottles of ethyl alcohol, and thousands of sachets of liquid soap from various companies.

Another 450,000 face masks will be arriving from China while another 10,000 test kits will be turned over to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine from another group, it said.

The Philippine government imposed a lockdown on Luzon until April 12, suspending public transportation and ordering millions to stay at home, in a bid to stop the coronavirus outbreak.