MANILA — The total number of COVID-19 infections in the Philippines reached 351,750 on Friday after the Department of Health reported 3,139 additional cases.

Of the new infections— which does not include results from 15 laboratories due to late reporting— 1,003 are from the National Capital Region, 206 are from Cavite, 175 from Rizal, 138 from Laguna and 126 from Iloilo.

More than half (64%) of these newly-announced cases occurred in the last 2 weeks.

The DOH also announced 786 additional recovered patients and 34 additional coronavirus-related deaths. Half of these deaths occurred in October, the rest are from September (9), August (4), July (3), and May (1).

With 294,865 recoveries and 6,531 fatalities, there are now 50,354 active cases in the country.

A total of 87 cases, of which 74 were tagged as recovered, were removed from the official tally as they were repeat tests.

The DOH also said it reclassified 8 recovered cases after finding out that they were deaths.

Except for Friday, Oct. 12, Oct. 4 and Sept. 28, the Philippines has been logging less than 3,000 cases a day in the last 3 weeks.

The DOH earlier said that the trend of COVID-19 cases is now declining. However, it has repeatedly reminded Filipinos not to be complacent and to continue practicing minimum health standards.

Among countries with the most number of COVID-19 cases, the Philippines recently went down to the 20th spot.

The OCTA Research Group, composed of professors from the University of the Philippines and University of Santo Tomas, estimates that COVID-19 cases in the Philippines will reach 380,000 to 410,000 by the end of October.

Since the start of the pandemic, 38.9 million people have been infected by the COVID-19 virus, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus dashboard. Of those, 1,098,434 have died and almost 26.9 million have recovered.