TOKYO, Jul 24 (NNN-XINHUA) – The Tokyo Olympics kicked off last night, with the host country Japan, facing a new wave of COVID-19 infections since Apr, while the pandemic is still wreaking havoc in other Asia-Pacific countries.
The Tokyo metropolitan government reported 1,359 new cases, amid public concern that infections could hit record highs during the Tokyo Olympics.
The seven-day rolling average of cases is 1,386 per day, an increase of 46.5 percent from the previous week. Tokyo is currently under a fourth COVID-19 state of emergency until Aug 22.
Health experts advising the Tokyo metropolitan government warned that, Tokyo might face a “critical” COVID-19 situation, if the virus continues to spread at the current rate, and concerns about the transmission of the highly contagious Delta variant have also been on the rise.
Pakistan confirmed 1,425 new cases over the past 24 hours, leading the country’s tally to cross the one-million mark, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), said. It was the first time the country reported less than 2,000 new cases in a day, after almost one week’s time, the NCOC’s data showed.
With the new patients, the country’s number of overall confirmed cases rose to 1,000,034, the NCOC, the department leading Pakistan’s campaign against the pandemic, said.
A total of 22,939 people have died of the disease nationwide, including 11 patients who died over the last 24 hours, the NCOC said, adding that, 2,525 people are in critical condition.
India’s total tally rose to 31,293,062, as 35,342 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, according to the federal health ministry’s latest data. Besides, 483 deaths since Thursday morning, took the total death toll to 419,470.
The Philippines’ Department of Health (DOH) reported 6,845 new infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,537,097.
DOH said, the death toll stayed at 26,891 after no patient died from the viral disease.
The government imposed “heightened restrictions” in Metro Manila until Jul 31, a few hours after DOH confirmed local transmission of the highly contagious Delta variant.
South Korea reported 1,630 more cases, raising the total number of infections to 185,733. Of the new cases, 516 were Seoul residents and 403 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.
Fifty-six cases were imported, lifting the combined figure to 11,397.
Three more deaths were confirmed, bringing the death toll to 2,066. The total fatality rate stood at 1.11 percent.
Cambodia reported 825 new infections, including 335 imported cases, pushing the national total caseload to 71,244, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said in a statement.
Thirty-four more fatalities had been recorded, taking the overall death toll to 1,222, the ministry said, adding that 897 other patients had recovered, raising the total number of recoveries to 63,474.– NNN-XINHUA
