MANILA (2nd UPDATE) - The Philippines on Saturday reported 3,962 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, raising the nationwide caseload to 283,460.

Cases of recoveries jumped by 1,128 over the previous day, the Department of Health (DOH) said in its latest bulletin. The total number of recoveries stood at 209,885.

The country also recorded 100 new fatalities from the respiratory illness, taking the death toll to 4,930.

To date, the Philippines has 68,645 active coronavirus cases, of which 87.4 percent of the patients are exhibiting mild symptoms, official DOH figures showed.

According to the health department, many of Saturday's additional cases -- or 1,440 -- were from Metro Manila, which remained the country's epicenter of the crisis.

The rest of new coronavirus infections were from Bulacan (354), Cavite (287), Laguna (222) and Batangas (213).

The DOH also said 27 duplicates were removed from the total case count, of which 15 were tagged as recoveries.

Some 17 cases previously reported as recoveries turned out to be deaths after final validation, it added.

The agency previously explained that the discrepancy was due to the continuing validation process, in which some cases could be duplicates or erroneous entries.

As of Sept. 17, the Philippines tested 3,293,210 individuals for the novel coronavirus, of whom 325,287 yielded positive results.

The DOH had also said that positive results still undergo validation because some could be repeat tests.

The Philippines remains the hardest-hit country by the pandemic in Southeast Asia, with the most coronavirus infections and active cases.

It is followed by Indonesia (240,687), Singapore (57,558), Malaysia (10,167) and Thailand (3,500) in terms of total cases.

ABS-CBN Data Analytics Team chief Edson Guido noted that the Philippines had conducted more COVID-19 tests compared to its Southeast Asian neighbors.

Indonesia has so far done over 2.8 million tests for its population of 270 million, he told Teleradyo's "Omaga-Diaz Report".

He added Indonesia had a national average positivity rate of 14.1 percent, which is higher compared to Philippines' 10.5 percent. Positivity rate refers to the percentage of individuals tested found positive for the virus.

As the Philippines is set to make another mass recovery adjustment called “Oplan Recovery” on Sunday, Guido said Indonesia could take over the Philippines with most active cases. Indonesia currently has over 56,000 patients currently infected with the virus.

According to Johns Hopkins University's running tally, more than 30 million cases of the disease have been recorded globally, with the United States, India, Brazil, Russia and Peru topping the list among countries with most infections.

Since surfacing from Wuhan City in China's Hubei province, over 951,000 people have succumbed to the disease while more than 20 million people have recovered.

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