The Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday reported 3,190 new cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), bringing the total cases to 322,497.

Based on its latest Case Bulletin, DOH said the active cases reached 43,642 of which 85.4 percent were mild. Asymptomatic cases were 9.2 percent; critical, 3.8 percent; and severe, 1.7 percent.

The National Capital Region was the biggest source of active cases, with 1,297 followed by Rizal, 212; Laguna, 147; Cavite, 146 and Bulacan, 122.

The DOH also said that 100 new deaths were recorded, raising total fatalities to 5,776.

“Of the 100 deaths, 16 occurred in October, 57 in September, 11 in August, 12 in July, 3 in June and one in May,” it said.

It added that most of the deaths came from NCR.

As to the recoveries, the health department recorded 18,065 patients who recovered from the virus bringing the total to 273,079.

The Health department said 23 duplicates were removed from the total case count. Of these, 13 recovered cases and two deaths have been removed.

“Moreover, 19 cases previously tagged as recovered were reclassified as deaths after final validation,” it said.

The DOH has previously attributed the high number of recoveries to their "Oplan Recovery," which uses the time-based recovery system, wherein those who have completed the 14-day isolation period and are cleared through a clinical assessment by a physician are tagged as having recovered despite not undergoing repeat RT-PCR testing. Ella Dionisio/DMS