MANILA (UPDATE) — The total number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines reached 461,505 on Monday after the Department of Health reported 1,721 additional infections.

The tally does not include data from 5 laboratories that were not able to submit results on time.

Topping the list of areas with new cases are Davao City with 151, Quezon City with 142, Rizal with 85, Laguna with 81, and Manila City with 77.

Except for December 18, the daily tally of COVID cases has remained under 2,000 the past several days. It is the 2nd straight day though that daily new cases are above the 1,500-mark. Government officials previously warned that gatherings during the holiday season may contribute to the spread of the virus.

The DOH also reported 82 additional COVID-19 recovered patients or a total of 429,207 recoveries.

There are also 10 new COVID-related deaths or a total of 8,957 fatalities.

Of the 23,341 active cases, 82.2% have mild symptoms, 8.5% are asymptomatic, 5.9% are in critical condition, 3% have severe symptoms, and 0.34% have moderate symptoms.

The DOH said 5 cases, all tagged as recovered, were removed from the tally because of duplicate entries. There were also 4 recovered cases that turned out to be deaths.

DOH data showed that a large number of new COVID-19 patients are in their 20s and 30s or within the working age population.

Meanwhile, regions with the most number of new cases are still the National Capital Region and Region 4A or Calabarzon.

Asked if the DOH would suggest granular lockdowns, Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said Monday morning that they continue to monitor changes in COVID-19 numbers and will be meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force next week to discuss the risk classification of the different areas in the country.

• READ: Hospitals urged to allot more beds, ventilators for possible surge in COVID cases during holidays

She said they will recommend stricter measures for areas that will reach a certain number or percentage of cases, although local government units can impose their own lockdowns.

Since the start of the pandemic, 76.8 million people have been infected by the COVID-19 virus, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus dashboard. Of those, 1.69 million have died and almost 43.3 million have recovered. There are around 31.8 million people currently infected with COVID-19.

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