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Sydney: Coronavirus cases in Asia rose to a quarter of a million on Tuesday, according to a Reuters Tally, fueled by outbreaks in Singapore, Pakistan, and India, even as China, South Korea, and Japan significantly reduced the spread of the disease.
The region where the COVID-19 pandemic began has performed better overall than North America and Europe since the first case was reported in Wuhan, China on January 10. It has taken Asia nearly four months to reach the infection milestone of 250,000, a level that only Spain is approaching just over two months since it reported its first case.
Representative image. AP
At 250,650, Asia now accounts for just 7 percent of global cases, compared to 40 percent in Europe and 34 percent in North America, although experts fear that unreported infections are hiding the true extent of the pandemic.
The infection can cause only mild symptoms, and not all people with symptoms are tested, while most countries only record deaths in hospitals, meaning deaths in private homes and nursing homes have not yet been included .
The death toll in Asia has also slowed significantly in most countries and is now approaching 10,000 across the region, accounting for just 4 percent of global deaths. Europe represents 57 percent and North America 29 percent.
In comparison, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and France have recorded more than 25,000 deaths each. The United States leads the grim number with 70,000 deaths.
South Korean success
Strict closure measures in China and South Korea that lasted for weeks have been credited by officials with sharp declines in the rate of new cases and deaths. South Korea reported just three new cases in the past 24 hours, a change from the peak of the national epidemic in late February when it reported 1,165 cases in a single day.
Peter Collignon, a physician and infectious disease microbiologist at Canberra Hospital, said South Korea is currently the country with the most reliable data that has been most successful in stopping the spread of the virus. “South Korea has kept new cases to low numbers without paralyzing the economy,” Collignon said.
China has reported new single-digit or double-digit cases low in the past week, keeping cases at just under 83,000.
Japan, where the blockade has been less severe than many other countries, has reported an average of around 200 cases per day over the past week for a current total of around 16,000.
At the other end of the spectrum, India has recorded more than 46,000 cases and 1,500 confirmed deaths from the virus, with more than 2,000 new cases in recent days. India’s largest cities have maintained tight restrictions despite the end of a national shutdown on Sunday, amid concerns that infections are not reported in the country’s 1.3 billion people.
In neighboring Pakistan, daily detection of the virus reached record levels in the past week as the country intensifies its testing efforts. Still, the government said 21,000 infections and nearly 500 deaths are well below projections, and plans to further ease the blockade measures.
Singapore has a total of 19,410 infections and continues to record 500-800 new cases per day, largely due to massive outbreaks in migrant worker dormitories, but has only reported 18 deaths. It started reopening its economy this week.
The nearby Oceana region, made up of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, accounted for less than 1% of global cases.
Australia has recorded around 6,800 infections and 96 deaths, and New Zealand 1,137 cases and 20 deaths. The couple began talking Tuesday about creating a trans-Tasmanian “travel bubble” that would allow people to move between the two countries, while wider international travel was still prohibited.
Update date: 06 May 2020 11:24:21 IST
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