The Department of Health on Saturday afternoon said there are now 267 patients being investigated for the novel coronavirus.

In a Facebook post, the DOH said the National Capital Region has the most number of patients under investigation (PUI) for and confirmed cases of the 2019 nCoV acute respiratory disease with a combined tally of 103, 93 of which are in hospital.

Meanwhile, Central Luzon registered 36 PUIs, followed by Calabarzon (24) and Western Visayas (23).

Of the 267, 230 were confined in hospital, 19 were discharged and two died.

According to the DOH, the first PUI death is a case of pneumonia in an immuno-compromised patient, while the other death is a case of pneumonia in a patient with underlying restrictive lung disease.

The DOH's updated tally, up from 215 on Friday, included three confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.

On Wednesday, China's health ministry confirmed a Chinese patient, who was in the Philippines but returned to China, tested positive for the 2019-nCoV ARD.

DOH undersecretary Eric Domingo said the patient is a 60-year old woman from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the virus. She arrived in Cebu City in the central region, via Hong Kong, on Jan. 20, and then traveled to the neighboring resort island province of Bohol.

Earlier on Saturday, a Criminal Investigation and Detection Group official said that dozens of passengers on the same flights as two Chinese citizens found positive for the novel coronavirus in the Philippines could not be reached.

• Police: No contact yet with dozens of co-passengers of 2 nCoV patients in PH

Police Col. Rhoderick Armamento of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said his group was only able to track down 102 out of 191 passengers of two flights that the Chinese nationals had taken on Jan. 21.

" 'Yong iba na hindi namin na-contact ay tinext na lang namin. Some of them indeed replied to our queries," he told ANC's "Dateline."

"Unfortunately, meron hindi rin namin na-contact because for some reasons 'yong iba do'n hindi nagri-ring. Assumption namin is mali 'yong number na naibigay and talagang out of reach lang siya," added Armamento, CIDG's deputy director for operations.