MANILA — Confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines reached 238,727 on Monday as the Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,383 additional coronavirus infections.

According to ABS-CBN Data Analytics, this is the lowest number of additional cases in a day since July 15.

The DOH reported that the data is based only on 88 out of 115 accredited testing laboratories, which means 27 laboratories failed to submit their results on time.

Majority or 87% of the additional cases occurred within the last 2 weeks. Topping the list of recent cases are the National Capital Region (38%), Region 4A (24%) and Region 6 (24%).

The DOH also reported 230 additional recovered patients and 15 new COVID-related deaths, bringing the number of active cases in the country to 49,931. On Sunday, the agency reported 23,074 additional recoveries as part of its time-based tagging or mass recovery adjustment.

The total number of recoveries is 184,906, while the total number of fatalities is 3,890.

The Philippines has been logging record-high numbers in terms of new COVID-19 cases since late July, following the easing of quarantine measures and the gradual opening up of the economy.

But a lower number of cases have been observed starting Sept. 2. Except for Sept. 4, which logged 3,704 new coronavirus infections, the daily report of additional cases in the last 5 days remained below 3,000.

The 27 laboratories who failed to submit their data to the COVID-19 Data Repository System on time on Monday are:

1. AL Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory
2. Amosup Seamen's Hospital
3. Bacolod Queen of Mercy Hospital
4. Bohol Containerized PCR Laboratory
5. Butuan Medical Center
6. Calamba Medical Center
7. Detoxicare Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory
8. Fe Del Mundo Medical Center
9. Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Medical Center
10. Green City Medical Center
11. Ilocos Training Regional Medical Center (GX)
12. Lucena United Doctors Hospital and Medical Center
13. Marikina Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory
14. Marilao Medical and Diagnostic Clinic
15. Northern Mindanao TB Regional Center
16. Philippine Heart Center
17. Philippine Red Cross
18. Philippine Red Cross - Clark Mol Lab (PAMPANGA)
19. Philippine Red Cross - Logistics and Training- SUBIC, ZAMBALES
20. Philippine Red Cross - Molecular Biology Laboratory
21. Philippine Red Cross - PLMC Laboratory
22. Philippine Red Cross - Port Area
23. Qualimed Hospital - San Jose del Monte
24. Safeguard DNA Diagnostics
25. San Lazaro Hospital
26. Tondo Medical Center
27. University of Perpetual Help System Dalta

A total of 21 duplicate cases were also removed from the previous tally, including 8 tagged as recovered.

“There were three (3) cases that were previously reported as recovered but after final validation, they were deaths,” the DOH said.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said last week that they would have to check the 7-day moving average of the number of cases to confirm if the trend is indeed declining.

But she said Monday that the Philippines is on the right track as its transmission rate is below 1.

“It is less than 1 already. And sinasabi nga ng WHO (World Health Organization) and other reputable international organizations na kapag less than 1 ang transmission rate mo, nandun ka sa tamang direksyon,” she said.

(What the WHO and other reputable international organizations are saying is that if your transmission rate is less than 1, you are headed in the right direction.)

A transmission rate of more than 1 means that a patient can infect one or more people. If the rate is below 1, then it means the spread of the disease has slowed down.

Vergeire said critical care utilization or hospital occupancy of COVID-19 cases is also at 50% for the whole country.

• READ: DOH says PH in ‘right direction’ as COVID-19 transmission rate stays below 1

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

Since the start of the pandemic, 27.1 million people have been infected by the COVID-19 virus, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus dashboard. Of those, 883,000 have died and almost 18.1 million have recovered.