Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases fell to 19, 271 from 23, 134 on Saturday, the Department of Health (DOH) announced Sunday.

Saturday's tally was the second all-time highest COVID-19 case.

There were 205 deaths, bringing total fatalities to 36, 788.

Recoveries surpassed new cases with 25, 037, raising total recoveries to 2, 151, 765.

Total cases reached 2, 366, 749 out of which 178, 196 are active cases. Mild cases account for 92.3 percent of active cases followed by 3.1 percent asymptomatic and 2.6 percent moderate.

ICU bed utilization was at 77 percent for the entire country and the National Capital Region. Hospital bed capacity was at 72 percent for the whole country and 73 percent for NCR.

The positivity rate was at 25.1 percent from 70, 571 persons tested on Sept. 17. DMS

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PNP investigating protest vs wearing face masks, face shields in Manila

Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano said the Philippine National Police (PNP) are investigating a rally protesting the wearing of face masks and face shields in Manila on Saturday.

"It is currently being investigated by the PNP. We can trace that with the help of the local government unit," Ano said in a radio interview on Sunday.

"We do not allow the freedom of expression to (use) as reason to violate the minimum public health standard and the pilot testing of our new alert level system," he added.

The National Capital Region is under Alert Level Four starting Sept. 16 to Sept. 30 to curb rising cases of COVID-19.

Ano calls the public to avoid staging protests to avoid further spread of the coronavirus disease. He added that government forces will always practice maximum tolerance in these situations.

"We are asking our people to avoid rallies and demonstration activities in this time of pandemic especially now that we are in Alert Level Four but at the same time we also have what we called as maximum tolerance," he said.

"We tolerate freedom of expression provided that they will follow the public health standard and we are asking them to finish their activity as soon as possible and go home for their safety. We are trying to balance it except if there is a blatant violation where we need to stop and arrest them, then they will be arrested," he added. Robina Asido/DMS