MANILA (UPDATE) - The number of Filipinos abroad who have contracted COVID-19 rose to 13,624 on Wednesday as 19 new cases were recorded, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.
The DFA reported 61 new recoveries and 3 new fatalities among those infected.
Wednesday's reported recoveries is the highest since January 13, when DFA reported 97 recoveries across all regions.
This is also the second day this week that DFA reported new fatalities, following no reports of new COVID-19 deaths last week.
The number of those currently being treated abroad for the disease is 3,935, as 8,745 of those infected have recovered, while 944 have died.
Those undergoing treatment are broken down as follows by region: 765 in the Asia Pacific, 601 in Europe, 2,488 in the Middle East and Africa, and 81 in the Americas.
In the Philippines, COVID-19 has so far sickened 505,939 people. The tally includes 10,042 deaths, 466,993 recoveries, and 28,904 active cases.
The new coronavirus is believed to have first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.
Data from US-based Johns Hopkins University showed that almost 96.2 million people globally have contracted COVID-19, with the US, India, Brazil, Russia and the United Kingdom (UK) having the highest numbers of cumulative cases as of this posting.
The UK in December last year detected a reportedly more infectious COVID-19 strain, leading some countries to impose new lockdown and travel restrictions to stem its spread.
Over 2 million people have died while more than 53.1 million have recovered, according to the JHU’s running tally.
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