HONG KONG, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The number of COVID-19 cases continued to climb in the Asia-Pacific on Tuesday as India reported 69,921 new daily cases and the infections in the Philippines continue to surge.
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 3,691,166, as the death toll rose to 65,288, showed the latest data released by the federal health ministry, with 69,921 new cases and 819 deaths recorded over the past 24 hours.
India began holding entrance exam for admission to engineering courses, Joint Entrance Exams (JEE), in spite of opposition from some students and political bodies.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines surged to 224,264 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 3,483 new daily cases.
The DOH said that the number of recoveries rose to 158,012 after it reported 464 more patients have survived the disease, and 39 more patients have died from the viral disease, bringing the death toll to 3,597.
South Korea reported 235 more cases of the COVID-19 compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 20,182. The daily caseload stayed below 300 for three days, but it continued to grow in triple digits since Aug. 14.
Malaysia reported 14 new COVID-19 infections, the health ministry said, bringing the national total to 9,354. Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said at a press briefing that five of the new cases are imported and nine are local transmissions.
Brunei reported no new cases of COVID-19 with the national tally of cases standing at 144. It marked the seventh consecutive day without new cases.
The Afghan Ministry of Public Health reported 31 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infected people to 38,200. A total of 162 tests were conducted within the past 24 hours, and 31 were positive in eight provinces out of 34 Afghan provinces, the ministry said in a statement.
The COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 2,775 within one day to 177,571, with the death toll adding by 88 to 7,505, the health ministry said.
New Zealand confirmed 14 new cases of COVID-19, including nine imported cases in managed isolation facilities and five in the community.
The five new community cases are all clearly epidemiologically linked to cases that are either epidemiologically or genomically linked to the Auckland family cluster, according to the Ministry of Health. Enditem
