MANILA, Philippines — The Middle East remained a pandemic hot spot for overseas Filipino workers, accounting for more than half of the total COVID-19 fatalities and active cases abroad.
At least 2,317 Filipinos in the Middle East are still undergoing treatment for the disease, representing 70 percent of the 3,257 active cases among abroad.
In the first week of August, another 36 Filipinos in the Middle East have died of COVID-19, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
This brought to 430 the number of Filipinos in the region who lost their lives to COVID-19. This represented 60 percent of the total 708 Filipinos who died of COVID-19 abroad.
At least 9,725 Filipinos abroad have been infected with the virus, but 5,760 have already recovered.
—Dona Z. Pazzibugan