Coronavirus death toll in Asia tops 100,000

ASIA has registered more than 100,000 deaths linked to the new coronavirus since it first emerged in December, according to an AFP tally based on official sources at 0800 GMT on Thursday.

A total of 100,667 deaths have been attributed to the coronavirus in the region out of 5,420,803 officially declared cases, with 4,255,760 people considered to have recovered.

In terms of fatalities, India is the most affected country with nearly three-quarters of total deaths in the region—67,376 deaths from 3,853,406 cases.

It is followed by Indonesia with 7,616 deaths from 180,646 cases and Pakistan (6,328 deaths, 297,014 cases).

The continent, which had successfully contained the virus after its discovery in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, has faced an increase in the daily number of cases and deaths since August.

Nearly 90,000 infections and 1,200 fatalities have been reported on average every day for the past week.

This represents an 11 per cent increase in the number of cases and a six per cent rise in the number of deaths over the previous week.

The region also had the most cases in one week at 618,000 and the second highest number of deaths at 8,600, a figure topped only by Latin America, which still records more than 16,000 deaths weekly.

As well as being the worst-hit country in Asia, India has also reported the biggest surge in the world in a week, with more than half a million new cases (up 15 per cent in seven days) and more than 6,800 new deaths (up five percent).

India's COVID-19 tally rose to 3,853,406, as the death toll mounted to 67,376 on Thursday, showed the latest data released by the federal health ministry.

As many as 83,883 new cases and 1,043 deaths were recorded over the past 24 hours across the country. This is the highest single-day spike of new COVID-19 cases in the country so far.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines reported 1,987 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, the lowest daily increase in more than one month in the Southeast Asian country.

Thailand on Thursday reported its first case of community transmission of the novel coronavirus after 100 days with no detected local cases.

Health authorities said the case was detected in a recently jailed 37-year-old man, who tested positive during his 14-day quarantine period at the prison.

They said there was no record of his ever having travelled out of the country.

His close contacts considered to be at high risk, including family members, other inmates and Corrections Department staff, have been tested, but so far all results have been negative.

Thailand has had 3,427 cumulative cases, with 58 deaths.

Wednesday marked Thai land's 100th day free from local infection.

The total number of COVID-19 cases surpassed 1,000 in Myanmar on Thursday, doubling in less than 10 days, according to the Health Ministry.

Of 2,552 tests done through late Wednesday evening, a total of 120 new cases came back positive for the novel coronavirus, bringing the country's confirmed infection figure to 1,058.

Meanwhile, the death toll had remained unchanged at six since late April.

The total figure of cases had stood at 504 on the evening of Aug. 25.

Of the new cases, 22 are imported ones.

Over 400 cases have been detected in both the Yangon Region and in the western state of Rakhine, where authorities have imposed a lockdown, while the rest are spread across the other 12 different places, including 11 states and regions, in a singleand double-digit figures.

Myanmar reported its first two COVID-19 cases on March 23 when two local man who returned from United States and Britain were tested positive upon arrival in Yangon.

The country had been holding the numbers low until mid-August at just over 300 in total.

In terms of deaths, Asia is the fourth most affected region in the world, behind Latin America and the Caribbean (282,979 deaths, 7,514,473 cases), Europe (216,596 deaths, 4,049,902 cases), the United States and Canada (194,915 deaths, 6,244,459 cases).

It is ahead of the Middle East (37,004 deaths, 1,524,773 cases), Africa (30,260 deaths, 1,267,343 cases), and Oceania (707 deaths, 29,320 cases).

SOURCE: AFP/Xinhua/Kyodo

Photo: AFP

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