Children walk past a basketball court at a primary school in South Gyeongsang province, South Korea, March 31, 2020.(NEWSIS/Handout via Xinhua)
-- S. Korea reports 101 new COVID cases, 9,887 in total.
-- Australia establishes temporary COVID-19 testing station at Sydney's Bondi Beach pavilion.
-- Vietnam reports five new COVID cases, 212 in total.
-- Cambodia approves a draft law on state of emergency amid the pandemic.
HONG KONG, April 1 (Xinhua) -- The following is the latest developments of the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia-Pacific countries.
SEOUL -- South Korea reported 101 more cases of the COVID-19 compared to 24 hours ago as of midnight Wednesday local time, raising the total number of infections to 9,887.
Three more deaths were confirmed, lifting the death toll to 165. The total fatality rate stood at 1.67 percent.
A total of 159 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 5,567.
A tourist views the closed Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, March 21, 2020. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei)
SYDNEY -- Backpackers have been blamed for transforming Australia's world famous Bondi Beach into a COVID-19 "hotspot", with travellers unwilling or unable to properly socially isolate leading to a high concentration of cases in the area.
On Wednesday, a temporary COVID-19 testing station was established at the iconic Bondi Beach pavilion, just meters from the sand -- with doctors in the area told to ramp up testing of those with symptoms, regardless of their travel history.
Photo taken on March 31, 2020 shows local residents waiting to take a rapid COVID-19 test at a makeshift testing station in Vietnamese capital city of Hanoi.(Xinhua/VNA)
HANOI -- Vietnam's Ministry of Health said on Wednesday that five more local citizens had tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 212.
The five cases include three people recently returning from Russia, the United States and Thailand, and two people related to Hanoi-based Bach Mai Hospital, which is in connection with a number of confirmed cases.
A vendor wearing mask is seen in front of the Independence Monument in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, March 25, 2020. (Xinhua/Mao Pengfei)
PHNOM PENH -- The Cambodian government has approved a draft law on state of emergency amid the spread of COVID-19, according to a statement released late Tuesday.
The draft bill was approved on Tuesday during a permanent cabinet members meeting chaired by Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen, the statement said.
Two more COVID-19 patients in Cambodia have recovered, bringing the total number of patients cured in the kingdom to 25, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) on Wednesday.■
