MANILA, Philippines — The foreign affairs department on Thursday said 19 more Filipinos abroad have contracted the coronavirus, bringing the total to now at 11,592.
Officials in a daily bulletin reported that the new cases came from the Asia-Pacific region alone.
Recoveries also saw four more Filipino patients discharged to bring the count to 7,496, while fatalities stayed at 834 with no new deaths reported.
Some 3,262 are still in hospitals receiving treatment.
"The DFA shall continue to keep track of the status of overseas Filipinos and stands ready to assist and facilitate repatriations, whenever possible," the department said.
Thursday's additional cases bring the number of infections among Filipinos in Asia Pacific to 1,914, along with recoveries now at 1,326 and its death toll remaining at nine.
Overall, the Middle East still has the most cases at 7,535, together with 549 fatalities from the virus at 4,657 patients who got well.
Europe, long dubbed as the "epicenter of the virus," has 1,313 cases among the Filipino community, 97 deaths and 993 recovered.
Americas in its 10 countries have the least at 830 cases, 179 deaths and 520 recoveries.
The additional cases among Filipinos today add to the more than 60.5 million individuals across the world infected with the COVID-19.
There had also been 1.42 million deaths and the United States — where gatherings had been limited for its Thanksgiving holiday — leads with 12.7 million infections and over 262,000 deaths.
India (9.2 million), Brazil (6.1 million), France (2.2 million) and Russia (2.1 million) followed in the list of countries with the most number of cases.
The Philippines with its 424,297 cases is at the 27th spot. Authorities here are also in talks on the conduct of holiday activities with the Yuletide season fast approaching.
Health officials in Manila have said that they bracing for a post-holiday season surge in coronavirus cases, with many Filipinos flocking to commercial centers for their holiday shopping. — Christian Deiparine
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