Coronavirus cases continue to spread in Asia-Pacific as WHO warns worst is yet to come

COVID-19 continued to spread in Asia-Pacific region on Tuesday while the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that the worst is yet to come in the pandemic as global cases and death tolls climbed.

India’s Health Ministry on Tuesday morning said 418 new deaths and 18,522 positive cases were reported during the past 24 hours across the country, taking the number of deaths to 16,893 and total cases to 566,840.

Bangladesh recorded 64 new fatalities, the highest increase in a single day since the pandemic broke out in the country on March 8, bringing the total number of fatalities to 1847.

The number of confirmed cases in the country increased to 145,483 with 3682 new cases reported in the last 24 hours. In Indonesia, the confirmed cases rose by 1293 within one day to 56,385, with the death toll adding by 71 to 2876, Achmad Yurianto, a Health Ministry official, said at a press conference. According to him, 1006 more people were discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 24,806.

The number of positive cases in the Philippines soared to 37,514 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 1080 more infections.

The death toll also increased to 1266 after 11 more patients succumbed to the viral disease, the DOH added.

South Korea recorded 43 more cases compared to 24 hours ago as of midnight Tuesday, raising the total number of infections to 12,800.

The daily caseload moved roughly between 30 and 60 in recent weeks due to the continued small cluster infections and imported cases.

Of the new cases, 20 were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 1,582.

No more death was confirmed, leaving the death toll at 282.