MANILA - The Philippines confirmed 2,502 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday bringing the country’s total to 339,341.

The Department of Health also reported 17,057 new recoveries as the DOH implemented its weekly “mass recovery” pushing the total number of Filipinos who recovered from the disease to 293,075.

This meant that the country has a total of 39,945 active cases as of 4 p.m. Sunday.

Eighty three more deaths were reported from the illness, bringing COVID-19’s death toll in the Philippines to 6,321.

The National Capital Region had the most number of new cases at 782. NCR was followed by Rizal province which had 141 new infections, Laguna with 128, Cavite with 125, and Bulacan with 119.

The Philippines has the highest number of total cases in Southeast Asia and in the Western Pacific despite implementing the longest and strictest lockdown in the region.

The country’s first confirmed COVID-19 case was a 38-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, China.

Worldwide, the novel coronavirus has infected over 37.2 million people and caused over 1.07 million deaths since it first emerged in Wuhan, China in late 2019.

The United States remains the most badly affected country with over 7.7 million infections and over 214,000 deaths.

Even US President Donald Trump has been infected by the virus.

India follows the US with over 7.05 million infections. Brazil ranks third with over 5.08 million infections but is second in terms of deaths with over 150,000 COVID-19 fatalities.