MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health reported 3,714 additional coronavirus cases Friday, bringing the total number of confirmed infections in the country to 232,072.
This is higher than the 1,987 new cases reported Thursday—the lowest number of daily cases in over a month. Friday’s figures were based on the tests done by only 93 out of 113 operational laboratories.
Of the new infections, 48% came from outbreak epicenter Metro Manila (1,797). Negros Occidental came in second with 390 cases, followed by Batangas (248), Laguna (247) and Cavite (150).
Of the additional cases, around 88% occurred in the last two weeks.
The number of recoveries grew by 1,088 to 160,549.
But coronavirus deaths rose to 3,737 with 49 new fatalities, most of which from the capital region. Thirty-five of the new deaths occurred in August, while five in September.
The DOH said there were 67,786 active cases in the country. Active infections comprised 29% of the total confirmed cases.
Some 45 duplicate cases were removed from the total case count.
Researchers from the University of the Philippines projected the country’s coronavirus caseload could average at around 585,000 by the end of the year.
Most of the country is either under general community quarantine or modified general community quarantine except for Iligan City in Northern Mindanao. Metro Manila—the epicenter of the nation’s outbreak—would remain under GCQ until September 30.
Globally, more than 866,000 people have died of COVID-19 out of over 26.2 million people infected.