MANILA — The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines reached 252,964 on Friday, after the Department of Health reported 4,040 additional cases.

This is the 4th straight day that additional cases were more than 3,000. It is also the first time since August 30 that additional cases reached the 4,000 level again. This came as the DOH said it was expecting an “irregularly high number of cases this week” as laboratories catch up due to their reporting delays.

• ‘Irregularly high number’ of COVID cases expected this week as labs catch up on submission — DOH

Only 6 laboratories failed to submit results on time for Friday's report.

Of the additional cases, 1,813 were from the National Capital Region.

A majority -- or 68% -- of the cases reported occurred in the past 2 weeks.

The DOH also reported 566 additional recovered patients or a total of 186,606 recoveries. Meanwhile, there were 42 additional COVID-related deaths or a total of 4,108 fatalities.

This brought the number of active cases or those still infected with COVID-19 to 62,250.

Last week, COVID-19 numbers were as low as 1,000 to 2,000 a day but the decline was short-lived as the daily tally of cases went up again.

Experts from University of the Philippines OCTA Research Group estimate that total cases would reach 310,000 to 330,000 by the end of September.

• Philippines' COVID-19 cases breach 240,000

Since the start of the pandemic, almost 28.2 million people have been infected by the COVID-19 virus, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus dashboard. Of those, 909,000 have died and almost 19 million have recovered.