MANILA – The number of overseas Filipinos afflicted with COVID-19 surpassed 2,500 on Friday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.

The agency reported 43 new coronavirus cases, raising the total tally of overseas infections among Filipino nationals to 2,504.

The disease has also killed 2 more Filipinos abroad, bringing the death toll to 287. Meanwhile, the number of those who recovered from COVID-19 is up by 5 to 866.

“The latest figures represent a global picture of countries in different stages of the COVID story where Europe and Middle East still have the highest number of COVID-19 positive Filipinos, Asia and the Pacific has fewest number of cases, while the Americas still has the highest number of fatalities,” the DFA said in a statement.

DFA records 43 new confirmed COVID-19 cases among Filipinos abroad with 5 recoveries in the Americas, Asia and the Pacific and Middle East and 2 deaths in the Middle East pic.twitter.com/nqR06Zam21

— Willard Cheng (@willardcheng) May 22, 2020

To date, some 1,351 Filipinos abroad are undergoing treatment for COVID-19, broken down as follows by region: 127 in the Asia Pacific Region, 455 in Europe, 567 in the Middle East and Africa, and 202 in the Americas.

In the Philippines, COVID-19 has so far sickened 13,597 people, with 857 fatalities and 3,092 recoveries. - With a report from Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN News