HONG KONG, May 13 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread in Asia-Pacific countries as Thailand reported its record high new cases due to prison clusters on Thursday while the Philippines registered 6,385 new cases.
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 23,703,665 with 362,727 new cases registered in the past 24 hours, while the death toll swelled to 258,317 with 4,120 deaths since Wednesday morning, the health ministry said Thursday.
There are still 3,710,525 active cases in the country, with an increase of 6,426 cases in the past 24 hours.
A total of 19,734,823 people have been cured and discharged from hospitals so far across the country.
The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 6,385 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,124,724.
The death toll climbed to 18,821 after 107 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said.
DOH data showed that 17,909 medical workers, primarily nurses and doctors, have contracted the virus as of May 12. At least 89 health care workers have succumbed to the disease.
Thailand has reported the highest daily count of new COVID-19 cases following new prison clusters, complicating the country's fight against its worst coronavirus outbreak so far.
A total of 4,887 new infections were recorded in the last 24 hours, an "unusually high" number, Ministry of Foreign Affairs official Pensom Lertsithichai said at the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) daily briefing.
The new infections brought the country's total caseload to 93,794, more than tripling from the beginning of April, when the third wave of the outbreak started to spread from the capital Bangkok.
The 32 additional fatalities reported Thursday took the death toll to 518, according to the CCSA.
South Korea reported 715 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Wednesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 129,633.
The daily caseload was up from 635 the previous day, rising above 700 in five days. Seven more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 1,891. The total fatality rate stood at 1.46 percent.
Cambodia's Ministry of Health (MoH) logged a daily record of 446 COVID-19 cases, raising the national case tally to 21,141 so far.
The new infections included 431 local cases and 15 imported cases, the MoH said in a statement.
Six more fatalities were reported, taking the death toll to 142, it said, adding that 980 patients have recovered, pushing the total number of recoveries to 9,519.
Vietnam reported 35 new COVID-19 cases from 6:00 p.m. local time Wednesday to 6:00 a.m. Thursday, including 33 locally transmitted and two imported, raising the total confirmed cases in the country to 3,658, according to its Ministry of Health.
The community cases were all detected in lockdown areas in northern and central localities, including 22 in the central Da Nang city, four in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi and three in the northern Bac Ninh province, among others.
As of 6:00 a.m. local time Thursday, Vietnam has recorded a total of 2,213 domestically transmitted cases, including 643 detected since the start of the latest outbreak in late April, according to the ministry.
Fiji on Thursday night reported the fourth death from COVID-19 and four more confirmed infections in the Pacific island country.
Permanent Secretary for Health Ministry James Fong has announced a 24-hour lockdown in the containment zones in Suva and Nausori, a town about 19 km northeast of Suva, effective from 11:00 p.m. Friday to 4:00 a.m. Tuesday, noting a rising number of contacts stemming from new cases in the Suva-Nausori area.
Fiji has so far reported 165 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 109 recoveries, 52 positive cases and four deaths since March 2020. Enditem
