India's COVID-19 tally rises to 28,307,832

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread in Asia-Pacific countries as India reported 132,788 new cases Wednesday, meanwhile Thailand is speeding up COVID-19 vaccine distribution to prepare for a mass inoculation campaign, reported Xinhua.

India's COVID-19 tally rose to 28,307,832 with 132,788 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, said the federal health ministry.

Besides, as many as 3,207 deaths since Tuesday morning took the overall death toll to 335,102.

There are still 1,793,645 active cases in the country, a decrease of 101,875 in the past 24 hours. The number of daily active cases has been on the decline over the past few days, after a continuous surge since mid-April.

The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 5,257 new infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,240,716.

The death toll rose to 21,158 after 146 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said.

Carlito Galvez, the chief implementer of the national action plan to combat COVID-19, said the inclusion of Sinovac in the emergency use listing (EUL) validated by the World Health Organization is a positive development, as the country continues to scale up the procurement of this vaccine.

Thailand is speeding up COVID-19 vaccine distribution as preparation for a mass inoculation campaign due to start next week amid efforts to contain the country's worst wave of outbreak so far.

On Wednesday, the country reported 3,440 new cases, raising its total caseload to 165,462 from less than 30,000 at the beginning of April, when the third wave of outbreak started to spread from the capital Bangkok.

The country also reported 38 additional fatalities, bringing the death toll to 1,107.

Pakistan has been seeing a declining trend of infections of COVID-19 as it reported 1,843 new confirmed cases on Tuesday with a positivity rate of 3.91 percent, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said.

According to the NCOC, the country's number of overall cases reached 924,667, including 848,685 recoveries and 55,052 active cases who are under treatment across the country.

According to the NCOC, there are 3,767 patients who are in critical condition while 80 people died from the pandemic during the last 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 20,930.

Cambodia reported a daily high of 750 COVID-19 cases, pushing the national case tally to 31,460, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

The new infections included 716 local cases and 34 imported cases, the MoH said.

Ten more fatalities had been confirmed, bringing the overall death toll to 230, the statement said, adding that 653 patients had recovered, taking the total number of recoveries to 24,042.

South Korea reported 677 more cases as of midnight Tuesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 141,476.

The daily caseload was sharply up from 459 in the prior day, rising above 600 in six days. The daily average caseload for the past week was 542.

Two more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 1,965. The total fatality rate stood at 1.39 percent.

Health authorities in the Australian state of Victoria extended a lockdown in the capital of Melbourne as the latest outbreak of COVID-19 active cases rose to 60 by Wednesday.

The week-long lockdown, which was due to end on Thursday, will continue for at least another seven days in Melbourne, with restrictions being eased in regional Victoria.