HONG KONG, July 15 — Several Asia-Pacific countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea reported record daily cases in the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday, according to Xinhua.
The Philippines will ban all travellers from Indonesia from July 16 to July 31 to prevent the spread of the highly infectious coronavirus Delta variant, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said on Wednesday.
Indonesia recorded 54,517 newly-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, marking the highest daily spike and bringing the total tally to 2,670,046, the Health Ministry said. The COVID-19-related death toll rose by 991 new deaths, bringing the total number to 69,210.
Malaysia reported 11,618 new COVID-19 infections in the highest daily spike since the outbreak, bringing the national total to 867,567, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday, including 26 imported and 11,592 local transmissions.
South Korea’s daily COVID-19 cases broke the record as the resurgence was caused by cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area, the health authorities said. In the latest tally, the country reported 1,615 more cases of COVID-19 for the past 24 hours, lifting the total number of infections to 171,911.
The Philippines’ Department of Health (DOH) reported 3,806 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,485,457. The death toll climbed to 26,232 after 140 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said.
Pakistan confirmed 1,980 new COVID-19 cases over the last 24 hours, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said.
The NCOC, a department leading Pakistan’s campaign against the pandemic, said that the country’s number of overall cases rose to 978,847, including 915,343 recoveries.
New Zealand’s frontline border workers who are required to be regularly tested for COVID-19 will soon be able to choose regular saliva testing as a full replacement for nasopharyngeal testing, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said.
New Zealand reported four new cases of COVID-19 related to recent returnees in managed isolation facilities and no cases in the community.
The total number of people crossing New Zealand’s border continued to pick up in May 2021 with the opening of two-way quarantine-free travel with Australia, New Zealand’s statistics department Stats NZ said.
Tokyo reported 1,149 new COVID-19 infection cases, topping the 1,000-case line for the first time since May 13, with 1,822 new cases nationwide.
The seven-day average number of new infections through Wednesday is 823.3, up 30.3 percent from a week ago, compared with 631.7 a week earlier. The figure is up 229 from the previous week, logging a week-on-week surge for a 25th straight day.
A cruise ship returned to Singapore after a COVID-19 case was found on board, reported Xinhua, quoting the Straits Times report.
The newspaper quoted Annie Chang, Singapore Tourism Board’s director of the cruise, as saying that a 40-year-old passenger was identified as the close contact of a previously confirmed case, and was immediately isolated as part of onboard health protocols.
India’s COVID-19 tally rose to 30,946,074 as 38,792 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, according to the federal health ministry’s latest data. Besides, 624 more deaths were recorded since Tuesday morning, taking the death toll to 411,408.
Australia’s state of New South Wales (NSW) announced to extend the lockdown on the Greater Sydney and surrounding areas for at least another two weeks until 11.59 pm July 30.
The decision came after the state recorded 97 locally acquired cases in the past 24 hours to 8.00 pm Tuesday night, out of 65,000 tests conducted overnight.
Sources: BERNAMA