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The Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday reported 2,502 new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), bringing the total to 339,341 cases nationwide.

Based on its latest case bulletin, the Health department said that of the 2,502 reported cases, 2,106 occurred within the recent 14 days.

“The top regions with cases in the recent two weeks were National Capital Region (650 or 31 percent), Region 4A (492 or 23 percent) and Region 3 (203 or 10 percent),” DOH said.

Of the confirmed COVID-19 cases, 39,945 were active cases.

As to the recoveries, the Health department said there were 17,057, bringing the total to 293,075 while the number of fatalities rose to 6,321 after 83 new deaths were reported.

Of the 83 deaths, 24 occurred in October, 21 in September, 23 in August, nine in July, two in June and one in May, two in April, and one in March.

DOH said deaths were from NCR at 39, Region 4A (Calabarzon) at 17, Region 6 (Western Visayas) at 10, Region 10 (Northern Mindanao) at five, Region 3 (Central Luzon) at four, Region 1 (Ilocos Sur) at two, Region 7 (Central Visayas) at two, Region 8 (Eastern Visayas) at one, and Caraga at one.

“87 duplicates were removed from the total case count. Of these, 35 were recovered cases. Moreover, 41 cases previously tagged as recovered were reclassified as deaths,” it said.

DOH said 15 laboratories failed to submit their data to the COVID-19 Data Repository System (CDRS) on October 10.

In a statement, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said government is now preparing for the start of the COVID-19 vaccine trials led by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) Sub-Technical Working Group (sub-TWG) on COVID-19 Vaccine Development.

According to IATF-EID Resolution No. 39, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) will be the lead agency.

"We recognize the exigency of these vaccine trials given our ongoing situation. This is why in the conduct of these trials, we will work together tirelessly and move expeditiously, of course while always placing primacy on the safety of our clinical trial participants,” said Duque.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will monitor the entities approved to conduct clinical trials, and will also approve vaccines that will be released and sold to the public.

"The responsibilities of each agency under the Sub-TWG on Vaccine Development are clear. I am confident that all agencies involved in vaccine development will work tirelessly in carrying out each individual responsibility," said Duque.

Last week, DOH said the United States firm Johnson & Johnson - Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Chinese company Sinovac, and Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute have already officially applied for clinical trials in the country. Ella Dionisio/DMS