HONG KONG, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread in Asia-Pacific countries as Japan's capital city reported its six-month high of 1,832 daily cases on Wednesday and South Korea daily cases hit a record high at 1,784.
Meanwhile, Thailand will shut down more venues as cases there are spiking.
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 31,216,337 as 42,015 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
As many as 3,998 deaths since Tuesday morning took the total death toll to 418,480.
There are still 407,170 active cases in the country with a rise of 1,050 during the past 24 hours.
Thailand will order more venues to close in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) announced on Wednesday.
The country reported 13,002 cases on Wednesday, the fifth consecutive day with more than 10,000 daily cases, taking the total caseload to 439,477. Deaths rose by 108 to 3,610, according to the CCSA.
Local media quoted the Department of Medical Sciences as saying that the Delta variant has overtaken the Alpha variant as the dominant strain in Thailand.
The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 6,560 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,524,449.
The death toll climbed to 26,874 after 32 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said.
The DOH reported that another medical worker has died from COVID-19, bringing the death toll in such group to 101. The agency said 21,245 health workers have contracted the disease as of July 19.
Pakistani President Arif Alvi urged the nation to follow guidelines identified by the government to prevent and control COVID-19 during the celebrations of the Eid al-Adha festival.
Amid rising cases of the Delta variant of the virus, the country confirmed 2,579 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, raising the total tally to 996,451, the NCOC, the department leading Pakistan's campaign against the pandemic, said on Wednesday.
A total of 22,888 people died of the disease nationwide, including 40 patients who died over the last 24 hours, the NCOC said, adding that 2,590 are in critical condition.
Tokyo reported 1,832 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily spike since Jan. 16, surging by nearly 700 and topping the figure a week ago for the 32nd consecutive day, with 4,192 new cases nationwide until 5:27 p.m. local time, local media reported Wednesday.
Wednesday's total soared from the 1,149 cases reported a week before. Daily cases in the capital averaged 1,277.6 in the seven-day period to Wednesday, compared with 823.3 a week before. It was also the highest number the capital has ever reported on a Wednesday.
Experts said Japan will probably be experiencing a fifth wave of infections with new cases climbing ahead of the opening of the Tokyo Olympics on Friday.
South Korea's daily COVID-19 cases hit a new record high amid the continued resurgence caused by cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area, the health authorities said Wednesday.
The country reported 1,784 more cases of COVID-19 for the past 24 hours, lifting the total number of infections to 182,265, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
The daily caseload was sharply up from 1,278 in the previous day, staying above 1,000 for the 15th consecutive day. The daily average caseload for the past week was 1,479.
One more death was confirmed, leaving the death toll at 2,060. The total fatality rate stood at 1.13 percent.
Cambodia registered 812 new COVID-19 infections including 279 imported cases, bringing the national total caseload to 69,608, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said in a statement.
Nineteen more fatalities were recorded, taking the overall death toll to 1,168, the ministry said, adding that 740 other patients recovered, raising the total number of recoveries to 61,779.
So far, 6.2 million people, or 62 percent of the 10 million targeted adult population, have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Enditem