HONG KONG, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Asia-Pacific countries are still fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, with mounting cases and deaths reported in India on Thursday.
India's total number of COVID-19 cases crossed the 50,000 mark on Thursday.
A total of 52,952 COVID-19 cases and 1,783 deaths were reported by the federal health ministry at 8:00 a.m. (local time), an increase of 3,561 cases and 89 deaths in the past 24 hours.
Mumbai has become the first Indian city to surpass the 10,000 cases mark of COVID-19 with the detection of 769 fresh cases Wednesday, said an update by the city civic authority late Wednesday.
India's Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Thursday the clinical trials of Ayurvedic medicines to fight COVID-19 has begun in the country.
The Indonesian government reported that 35 new deaths of the COVID-19 were registered on Thursday, raising the total fatalities in the archipelagic country to 930, the highest in Southeast Asia.
At a press conference, the government's spokesperson for the COVID-19-related matters Achmad Yurianto said that there were 338 new confirmed cases, bringing the total number of infections to 12,776.
Meanwhile, 64 more people have been discharged from hospitals, making the total number of recovered patients stand at 2,381.
The Philippines on Thursday reported 339 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of the COVID-19 cases in the country to 10,343.
The Department of Health (DOH) said the country now has a total of 1,618 recoveries, with 112 more patients surviving the disease.
According to DOH, 27 new deaths have been tallied, bringing the country's death toll to 685.
A total of 171 more COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Afghanistan over the 24 hours, bringing the number of patients infected with the disease to 3,563 in the country, spokesman for the Public Health Ministry Wahidullah Mayar said Thursday.
Two patients have died due to COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the number of total deaths to 106 since the outbreak of the virus in Afghanistan in February, the spokesman added.
According to Mayar, eight more patients have been discharged from hospital after recovery, bringing the number of recovered to 468 in the country.
Malaysia reported 39 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the total number in the country to 6,467, the Health Ministry said.
Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said 74 cases had been released, bringing the number of those cured and discharged to 4,776. No new deaths had been reported, leaving the total fatalities at 107.
South Korea reported four more cases of the COVID-19 compared to 24 hours ago as of midnight Thursday, raising the total number of infections to 10,810.
The daily caseload hovered below 20 for 20 straight days, staying below five for three days in a row.
New Zealand reported one more COVID-19 case on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases to 1,489, as some Kiwis and businesses look to further loosening restrictions in Alert Level 2.
No more deaths were reported over the past 24 hours, with the death toll remaining at 21, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a press conference.
Some schools in Japan that had temporarily closed amid a nationwide effort to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic opened their doors to students on Thursday.
The reopening of the schools came despite the nationwide state of emergency being extended through the end of May by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The decision to reopen the schools was made by the local boards of education as the government has permitted some prefectures that are not under a special alert to ease some of the restrictions put in place under the nationwide state of emergency that was first declared last month before being extended. Enditem
