A worker disinfects a shop in Mazar-i-Sharif, capital of Balkh province, Afghanistan, June 23, 2020. (Photo by Kawa Basharat/Xinhua)
-- Sri Lanka delays re-opening int'l airports following new COVID-19 cluster;
-- COVID-19 cases in the Philippines soar past 57,000 with 836 new reported cases;
-- Indonesia reports 1,282 new COVID-19 cases, 50 new deaths;
-- India reports highest single day spike of 28,701 COVID-19 cases, total nearing 880,000.
HONG KONG, July 13 (Xinhua) -- The following are the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia-Pacific countries:
KABUL -- The Afghan Ministry of Public Health on Monday confirmed 154 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of patients in the country to 34,605.
A total of 883 tests were conducted within the past 24 hours, and 154 were positive in 14 provinces out of 34 Afghan provinces, the ministry said in a statement.
Twenty-eight patients died within the period, taking the death toll to 1,038, the statement added.
People visit the "Wedding Boutique 2020" exhibition in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on July 12, 2020. (Xinhua/Tang Lu)
COLOMBO -- Sri Lanka's Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said on Monday that the re-opening of the country's international airports will be delayed further following a spike in the number of COVID-19 patients in the island country.
Sri Lanka has to date reported over 2,600 cases of COVID-19 since the first local patient was detected in March. Out of the total cases detected to date, 1,981 patients have been successfully treated and discharged.
A total of 11 deaths have been reported from the virus.
A man holding a child walks outside a street market in Dhaka, Bangladesh on June 20, 2020. (Str/Xinhua)
DHAKA -- The number of Bangladeshi people who have so far recovered from COVID-19 reached nearly 100,000 on Monday.
Nasima Sultana, a senior Health Ministry official, said in a briefing in Dhaka that the recovery rate rose to 52.61 percent Monday as more than half of positive cases had recovered from the disease so far in the country.
Sultana reported an additional 3,099 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday. In addition, she confirmed 39 new COVID-19-related deaths across the country, bringing the confirmed COVID-19 death toll to 2,391.
Members of a non-governmental organization hand out free helmets and reflective sashes to people on bicycles in Manila, the Philippines on July 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali)
MANILA -- The number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines surged to 57,006 after the country's Department of Health (DOH) reported 836 new cases on Monday afternoon.
The DOH said that the number of recoveries further rose to 20,371 after 4,325 more patients have survived the disease, which is the largest daily rise in recoveries since the outbreak of the pandemic.
The death toll also increased to 1,599 after 65 more patients have succumbed to the viral disease, the DOH said.
Workers package cigarettes at Gudang Baru cigarette factory in Malang, East Java, Indonesia, July 11, 2020. (Photo by Aman R./Xinhua)
JAKARTA -- The COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 1,282 within one day to 76,981, with the death toll adding by 50 to 3,656, Achmad Yurianto, a health ministry official, said at a press conference here on Monday.
People wearing face masks walk on the street in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, on July 9, 2020. (Xinhua/Du Xiaoyi)
TOKYO -- The Tokyo metropolitan government confirmed 119 new COVID-19 infections in the capital on Monday with the number of daily cases dropping below the 200-mark for the first time in five days.
The latest figure comes on the heels of 206 cases recorded in Tokyo the previous day, which marked a prolonged period of daily cases rising above 200, with a record 243 single-day number of COVID-19 infections confirmed on Friday.
A man reads at Yeouido Hangang Park in Seoul, South Korea, May 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Jingqiang)
SEOUL -- Eleven more U.S. soldiers in South Korea tested positive for COVID-19, the U.S. Forces Korea said Monday.
It came amid the growing worry here about the imported COVID-19 cases. In the latest tally, South Korea reported 62 more cases of the COVID-19 for the past 24 hours, raising the combined number of infections to 13,479.
A worker sprays sanitizer at a COVID-19 screening test center in Guwahati, India, July 11, 2020. (Str/Xinhua)
NEW DELHI -- India's federal health ministry Monday morning said 500 new deaths due to COVID-19, besides fresh 28,701 positive cases, were reported during the past 24 hours across the country, taking the number of deaths to 23,174 and total cases to 878,254.
This is said to be the highest single day spike in the number of fresh cases in the country so far.■
