A family buries their dead in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan on Thursday in Leyte, Philippines. Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images

The death toll in the Philippines from one of the strongest typhoons on record has risen above 5,200 and is likely to climb further, even as parts of the devastated country begin to see signs of recovery, officials said Friday.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said 4,919 people were killed on hard-hit Leyte, Samar and nearby islands in the Eastern Visayas region. Civil defense chief Eduardo del Rosario said 290 others died in other parts of the central and southern Philippines.

The regions were battered two weeks ago by fierce winds and tsunami-like storm surges from Typhoon Haiyan, known locally as Yolanda.

Del Rosario said there were 1,611 people still missing.

"That is the sad record of Yolanda's passage through our country," Roxas said. But he added that "the worst is over."

Haiyan hit the eastern seaboard of the Philippines on Nov. 8 and quickly barreled across its central islands, packing winds of 147 mph and gusts of up to 170 mph, with a storm surge of 20 feet.

Even though authorities evacuated about 800,000 people ahead of the typhoon, the death toll was high because many evacuation centers — schools, churches and government buildings — could not withstand the winds and water. Officials said people who sought shelter in the buildings drowned or were swept away.

Roxas likened the region to a patient that has been moved out of the emergency room into an intensive care unit.

"We have overcome the most difficult part," he said. "In the first week we can say we were in the emergency room ... this second week we are now in the ICU, still critical but stabilized."

Roxas said the Leyte provincial capital of Tacloban reported 1,725 dead, adding, "I believe this number in Tacloban city is not yet final."

Most of the bodies have been buried in mass graves, many of them unidentified, he said.

"It is possible that some of the missing are among the unidentified," he said.

Journalists in Tacloban say the stench of death from piles of debris, upturned vehicles and destroyed homes indicates that bodies remain trapped underneath.