A man in a personal protective equipment (PPE) suit sanitises an idol of the Hindu goddess Durga ahead of the upcoming 'Durga Puja' festival, in Kolkata on Oct 13, 2020. (DIBYANGSHU SARKAR / AFP)
SEOUL / JERUSALEM／DUBAI / NEW DELHI / SINGAPORE / DHAKA / BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN / TOKYO / TEHRAN / HANOI / COLOMBO / KUALA LUMPUR / DOHA / YANGON - India's daily rise of COVID-19 tally has come down to its lowest level as 55,342 new cases were registered between Monday and Tuesday morning, showed the data released by the federal health ministry.
To be precise, the current figure is lower than 57,981 new cases detected on Aug 17.
The number of deaths due to the pandemic has been lower than the 1000-mark for the past 10 successive days. A total of 706 deaths were recorded from Monday morning to Tuesday morning, which is much less than the trend seen in the past.
The decrease in daily cases results from collaborative actions by states and the union territories under the centre government's strategy of comprehensive and aggressive testing, prompt tracking and surveillance, hospitalization and adherence to the Standard Treatment Protocol which has ensured a standardized quality of medical care across the public and private hospitals and for home isolation.
From the past five weeks, there is a continuous decline in the average daily new cases. The weekly average of daily new cases fell from 92,830 cases in the second week of Sept to 70,114 cases in the second week of Oct, according to the federal health ministry's data.
In an official statement issued on Tuesday, the federal health ministry said that "India has sustained its global position of being the country with one of the lowest cases per million and reported deaths per million. While the global figure for cases/million is 4,794, India is clocking 5,199."
It added that the deaths per million in India are 79, while the world's average is 138.
In the matter of total tests conducted, India is one of the topmost countries. With 1,073,014 tests in the last 24 hours, the cumulative number of tests conducted stood at 889,45,107.
Pedestrians cross a street in Raffles Place in Singapore, on Oct 1, 2020. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)
Singapore
Singapore recorded no new local cases of COVID-19 for the first time since February, as the city-state rebounded from an outbreak in migrant worker dormitories that at one stage contributed to more than a thousand infections a day.
There were no cases in the community as well as in the foreign worker dormitories, according to a statement Tuesday from the Ministry of Health. This was the first time that no new cases were reported in the workers’ dorms since late March. The country still saw four new imported cases.
The major milestone comes two months after Singapore declared dormitories where some 300,000 migrant workers live clear of the virus, though some infection clusters continued to persist after that. Already, the outbreak among the more than 54,000 workers has forced a rethink of Singapore’s management and reliance on its low-wage labor force, having been one of the earliest examples of the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on vulnerable groups.
Travelers entering Singapore from the Malaysian state of Sabah will have to undergo a 14-day quarantine, the city said, also detailing rules for those from other areas, including non-citizens coming from Indonesia and the Philippines.
READ MORE: Iran sees record virus death toll for second straight day
Bangladesh
Bangladesh reported 1,537 new COVID-19 cases and 22 new deaths on Tuesday, making the tally at 381,275 and the death toll at 5,577, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said.
The official data showed that 13,815 samples were tested in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh.
The total number of recovered patients in the country stood at 295,873 including 1,482 new recoveries on Tuesday, said the DGHS.
According to the official data, the COVID-19 fatality rate in Bangladesh is now 1.46 percent and the current recovery rate is 77.60 percent.
Bangladesh recorded the highest daily new cases of 4,019 on July 2 and the highest number of deaths of 64 on June 30.
Brunei
Brunei reported no new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday with the national tally of cases standing at 146.
It marked the 19th consecutive day without new cases since Sept 24.
According to Brunei's Ministry of Health, there is no active case being treated at the National Isolation Center and the total number of recovered cases remains at 143.
Meanwhile, there are 361 individuals who are currently undergoing mandatory isolation at the monitoring centers provided by the government, who have arrived in the country after traveling abroad.
There have been three deaths from COVID-19 in Brunei.
India
With 55,342 new cases registered in India over the past 24 hours, the country's COVID-19 tally rose to 7,175,880 on Tuesday, said the latest data released by the federal health ministry.
The death toll reached 109,856 with 706 deaths since Monday morning, added the ministry's data.
The trend over the past few weeks shows that the rise in COVID-19 tally and deaths per day has slowed down, as the increase in number of cases has fallen below 60,000-mark and deaths around 700 per day.
Still there are 838,729 active COVID-19 cases across the country, while 6,227,295 people have been successfully cured and discharged from hospitals.
Indonesia
The COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 3,906 within one day to 340,622, with the death toll adding by 92 to 12,027, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
According to the ministry, 4,777 more people were discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 263,296.
Iran
Iran's health ministry reported 4,108 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, raising the total confirmed number in the country to 508,389.
The pandemic has so far claimed 29,070 lives in Iran, up by 254 in the past 24 hours, said Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, during her daily briefing.
A total of 411,840 people have recovered from the disease and been discharged from hospitals, while 4,570 remain in intensive care units, she added.
According to the spokeswoman, 4,369,622 tests for the virus have been carried out in Iran as of Tuesday.
Currently, the risk of infection is high in 26 Iranian provinces, Lari noted, asking people to avoid unnecessary outings.
Israel
Israel's Ministry of Health reported 41 new COVID-19 death cases on Monday, bringing the death toll to 2,021 since the pandemic outbreak in the state in late February.
The total number of COVID-19 cases in Israel reached 294,031, with 3,538 new cases, the ministry said.
Israel's government said on Monday it will not extend a coronavirus "special state of emergency" that has enabled it to limit public protest during a current three-week nationwide COVID-19 lockdown.
The statement was made by the Israeli State Attorney's Office, in a document filed to the Supreme Court. The office told the court that the "special state of emergency" will expire on Tuesday at midnight.
Japan
Japan confirmed 496 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, bringing the nation's cumulative total to 90,264 infections, not including those related to a cruise ship quarantined in Yokohama near Tokyo earlier this year.
Of the 496 new infections, the Tokyo metropolitan government reported 166 in the capital on Tuesday.
The figure topped the 100-mark again after dipping below the benchmark figure on Monday.
Tokyo, the hardest hit by the virus among all of Japan's 47 prefectures, has now seen its cumulative tally rise to 27,959 infections.
Meanwhile, Japan's western prefecture of Osaka, the second hardest hit by the pandemic, reported 69 new cases to total 11,249 infections, while Tokyo's neighboring prefecture Kanagawa confirmed 54 new infections, bringing its cumulative total to 5,393 cases.
According to the latest figures on Tuesday, the nationwide death toll now stands at a total of 1,651 people.
Laos
Lao National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control has been treating the last COVID-19 patient so that the patient can be discharged as soon as possible.
Deputy Director-General of the Department of Communicable Disease Control under Lao Ministry of Health Latsamy Vongkhamsao told a press conference in Lao capital Vientiane on Tuesday that the last COVID-19 patient in Laos has light or noticeable symptoms.
Lebanon
In Lebanon, the number of COVID-19 cases on Monday rose by 1,056 to 54,624.
Malaysia
Malaysia reported 660 new COVID-19 infections, the health ministry said on Tuesday, bringing the national total to 16,880.
Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press briefing that two of the new cases are imported and 658 are local transmissions.
Four more deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to 163.
The majority of new cases are from the eastern state of Sabah, with 443 new cases recorded. A two-week movement restrictions is in place starting on Tuesday to curb the spread.
Another 350 patients have been released after recovery, bringing the total cured and discharged to 11,372, or 67.4 percent of all cases.
Of the remaining 5,345 active cases, 101 are being held in intensive care units and 32 of those are in need of assisted breathing.
Mongolia
Mongolia confirmed two imported cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 320.
"A total of 707 tests for COVID-19 were conducted across the country yesterday and two of them were positive," the country's health ministry said in a statement.
The newly confirmed cases are returnees from abroad who were under quarantine in the country's capital Ulan Bator, according to the ministry.
People wearing face masks to help protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk by a poster informing mandatory mask wearing, at a bus station in Seoul, South Korea, Oct 12, 2020. (PHOTO / AP)
New Zealand
New Zealand reported one new imported case of COVID-19 on Tuesday, who arrived from the United States on Oct 8.
The person has tested positve to routine day 3 testing in managed isolation in Christchurch while in quarantine, according to the Ministry of Health.
The country's total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is 1,516, which is the number reported to the World Health Organization, said a ministry statement.
Palestine
Palestine reported on Monday 395 new COVID-19 cases and 10 fatalities, raising the total number of infections in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem to 55,951 and the death toll to 455.
Qatar
The Qatari Health Ministry on Tuesday announced 214 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 128,405, the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.
Meanwhile, 197 more recovered from the virus, bringing the overall recoveries to 125,373, while the fatalities remained 220 for the third day running as no new deaths were reported, according to a ministry statement quoted by QNA.
The ministry reiterated the need to take preventive measures, including staying home and observing social distancing.
A total of 843,565 persons in Qatar have taken lab tests for COVID-19 so far.
South Korea
South Korea reported 102 new coronavirus cases as of Monday midnight, marking the first triple-digit increase in six days, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Tuesday.
Some 69 were locally infected. One person died, bringing the death toll to 434.
Daily infections had fallen largely into the double-digit range in the past two weeks, which led the government to relax some rules on social distancing this week.
Sri Lanka
The number of COVID-19 patients in Sri Lanka rose to 4,893 on Tuesday after 49 new cases were detected from a new cluster located in Minuwangoda on the outskirts of capital Colombo, the government information department said.
The new cluster was detected last Sunday after a 39-year-old female who was employed at an apparel factory in Minuwangoda and her 16-year-old daughter tested positive for the virus, leading to thousands of PCR tests being conducted on all factory employees and their associates within the past week.
Till Tuesday afternoon, 1,446 people have tested positive for COVID-19 from the Minuwangoda cluster with authorities saying that further contact tracing was ongoing to trace the second and third contacts of the patients.
A curfew remains in place in Minuwangoda and some other areas of the Gampaha district since last Sunday while schools islandwide also remain closed.
The Health Ministry said in a statement that random PCR tests would be conducted across the country including in capital Colombo in the coming weeks following a surge in the number of patients.
According to the Health Promotion Bureau of the Health Ministry, Sri Lanka has conducted 342,343 PCR tests since February.
Sri Lanka has recorded 13 COVID-19 related deaths so far.
The Philippines
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines surged to 344,713 after the country's Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,990 new cases on Tuesday, the lowest increase since Sept 23.
The DOH said that the number of recoveries also rose to 293,383 after 327 more patients recovered. Meanwhile, 40 more patients died from the viral disease, bringing the death toll to 6,372.
The Philippines' capital Metro Manila topped the regions in the country with the highest number of daily confirmed cases on Tuesday with 580.
The UAE
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday announced 1,315 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 108,608.
At the same time, 1,452 more patients have recovered from the virus, taking the tally of recoveries in the UAE to 100,007, UAE's Ministry of Health and Prevention said.
It also confirmed two more deaths, pushing the country's death toll to 448.
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Turkey
Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca reported 1,614 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the total confirmed number in the country to 337,147.
In addition, 58 people died in the past 24 hours from the virus, taking the death toll to 8,895, while 1,301 more patients recovered, raising the number of recoveries to 295,658, according to the Turkish Health Ministry.
Vietnam
Vietnam reported three new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing its total confirmed cases to 1,113 with 35 deaths from the disease so far, according to the Ministry of Health.
The latest cases included a Malaysian and two Vietnamese citizens who have recently entered the country from abroad and have been quarantined upon arrival, according to the ministry.
The ministry also announced that one more patient has recovered, raising the total cured cases in the country to 1,026 as of Tuesday.
Meanwhile, over 13,800 people are being quarantined and monitored in the country, the ministry said.
Vietnam has gone through 41 straight days without any COVID-19 cases in the community, according to the ministry.
Myanmar
The total number of COVID-19 cases in Myanmar has increased to 30,437 as of Tuesday, according to a release from the Ministry of Health and Sports.
A total of 1,123 more COVID-19 confirmed cases were reported in the country.
The death toll reached 693 with 29 newly reported deaths on Tuesday in the country, the release said.
According to the ministry's figures, 11,769 patients have been discharged from the hospitals.
A total of 441,926 samples have been tested for COVID-19 so far, the ministry's figures said.
Myanmar reported its first two positive cases of COVID-19 on March 23.
