Confirmed coronavirus cases continue to surge in Asia-Pacific

Asia-Pacific countries reported more COVID-19 cases on Friday as India recorded its biggest one-day spike of 49,310 infections, taking the total to 1,287,945, reported Xinhua.

India's health ministry Friday morning reported 740 new deaths during the past 24 hours across the country, taking the number of deaths to 30,601.

According to ministry officials, so far 817,209 people have been discharged from hospitals after showing improvement.

Bangladesh reported over 2,500 new COVID-19 cases, as the total number of infections rose to nearly 219,000 and the death toll reached 2,836.

Senior Health Ministry official Nasima Sultana said in a briefing that 2,548 new COVID-19 positive cases and 35 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

"The number of confirmed infections in the country totaled 218,658 while fatalities stood at 2,836," she said.

In the Philippines, the number of total cases surged to 76,444 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,103 new cases.

The DOH said that the number of recoveries further rose to 24,502 after 144 more patients have survived the disease.

The death toll also increased to 1,879 after 15 more patients have succumbed to the viral disease, the DOH added.

The confirmed cases in Indonesia rose by 1,761 within one day to 95,418, with the death toll adding by 89 to 4,665, the Health Ministry said.

According to the ministry, 1,781 more people were discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 53,945.

Public Health Ministry of Afghanistan has registered 60 new cases over the past 24 hours, totaling the number of patients infected with the disease to 35,988 in the country, said a ministry's statement released Friday.

According to the statement, 14 new deaths were recorded, bringing the number of deaths to 1,225 since outbreak of the pandemic in February in the country.

A total of 52 more patients have recovered, bringing the number of recovery to 24,537 in Afghanistan, the statement added.

South Korea announced 41 more cases as of 0:00 a.m. Friday local time compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 13,979.

The daily caseload continued to grow in double digits due to the continued small cluster infections and imported cases.

Of the new cases, 13 were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 2,158.

One more death was confirmed, leaving the death toll at 298. The total fatality rate stood at 2.13 percent.