A sweeper cleans the empty road at the ever busy old city of Hyderabad on the first day of a lockdown to curb the COVID-19 pandemic in Telengana State, India, May 12, 2021. (Str/Xinhua)
HONG KONG, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread in Asia-Pacific countries as India's coronavirus death toll crossed the 250,000-mark, and Thailand reported a new daily record of 34 COVID-19 fatalities.
India registered as many as 4,205 deaths, the highest so far, during the past 24 hours, and 348,421 new cases, taking the total to 23,340,938, confirmed the federal health ministry..
There are still 3,704,099 active cases in the country, with a decrease of 11,122 in the past 24 hours. This is the second consecutive day when a decrease in active cases was witnessed.
The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 4,842 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,118,359.
The death toll climbed to 18,714 after 94 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said.
The Philippines has been battling one of the worst outbreaks in Asia. During the past week, its average number of daily new cases had hovered between about 6,600 to 7,700.
Thailand reported a new daily record of 34 COVID-19 fatalities, taking the country's death toll to 486, with 1,983 new infections, according to the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).
The infections added Thailand's total case tally to 88,907, more than tripled from the beginning of April when the third wave of coronavirus outbreak began to spread from the capital Bangkok.
Some 29,378 patients are now under treatment in hospitals, with 1,226 in critical conditions.
The number of patients designated as having severe symptoms as a result of COVID-19 in Japan reached a fresh record high of 1,189, rising by 13 compared to the previous day's record, the health ministry said.
The latest data regarding critically ill patients who typically require hospitalization and the assistance of ventilators or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines have more than tripled over the past month, the ministry said recently.
Wednesday's figure, which has stayed above the 1,000-mark since April 30, according to the health ministry, also coincides with the nation's third state of emergency being expanded to cover Fukuoka and Aichi prefectures, along with Tokyo, Osaka, Hyogo and Kyoto prefectures already under a state of emergency.
South Korea reported 635 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Tuesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 128,918.
The daily caseload was up from 511 in the previous day, marking the highest in four days.
Five more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 1,884. The total fatality rate stood at 1.46 percent.
Cambodia's Ministry of Health (MoH) reported a daily record of 472 new COVID-19 cases, pushing the national case tally to 20,695 since the pandemic began in January last year.
Five more fatalities had been confirmed, raising the death toll to 136, it said, adding that 369 patients had recovered, taking the total number of recoveries to 8,539.
Afghanistan reported 370 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, raising its national tally to 63,088, including 5,793 active cases, the country's Ministry of Public Health confirmed.
Meanwhile, 67 people recovered during the cited period, taking the overall number of recoveries to 54,570 while 12 deaths were reported, raising the death toll to 2,725, according to the statement.
Vietnam reported 34 new COVID-19 cases from 6:00 p.m. local time Tuesday to 6:00 a.m. Wednesday, including 33 locally transmitted and one imported, raising the total confirmed cases in the country to 3,571, according to its Ministry of Health.
As of 6:00 a.m. Wednesday, Vietnam has recorded a total of 2,131 domestically transmitted cases, including 561 detected in 25 localities since the start of the latest outbreak on April 29, according to the ministry. Enditem
