MANILA — The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday reported 1,383 new COVID-19 cases or a total of 445,540 confirmed cases in the Philippines.

Additional cases have remained below 2,000 for each of the last 11 days, and below 1,500 for the last 3 days. Thursday’s tally, though, does not include the results of 9 testing laboratories that failed to submit on time.

Leading among areas with the most number of new cases are Quezon City with 83, Laguna with 75, Manila City with 68, Bulacan with 65, and Davao City with 61.

The Philippines also logged 133 additional recovered patients, bringing the total number of recoveries to 409,058.

There were also 24 additional COVID-related deaths or a total of 8,701 fatalities.

Of the 27,781 active COVID-19 cases in the country, 85.5% have mild symptoms, 6.7% are asymptomatic, 5% are in critical condition, 2.5% have severe symptoms, and 0.25% have moderate symptoms.

The DOH removed 7 cases, 6 of which are recovered cases, from the official tally due to duplicate entries.

There were also 11 recovered cases that turned out to be deaths.

The OCTA group — composed of professors from the University of the Philippines, the University of Santo Tomas, and Providence College in the United States — on Wednesday identified four areas as high-risk because of the rise in COVID-19 cases and high hospital occupancy:

• - Makati City in the National Capital Region
• - Mankayan and Baguio City in Benguet
• - Davao City

• READ: Makati, Baguio, Davao City marked 'high-risk' as mobility boosts COVID-19: OCTA

The DOH and experts have repeatedly warned Filipinos against going out especially during the upcoming holiday season. The Philippines is said to already have a declining trend in COVID-19 cases but officials are worried that the trend will be reversed because of Christmas gatherings.

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The OCTA Research Group earlier said it estimates a total of 500,000 cases in the country by the end of the year.

Since the start of the pandemic, 68.9 million people have been infected by the COVID-19 virus, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus dashboard. Of those, more than 1.5 million have died and almost 44.4 million have recovered.