India reports 20,279 new COVID-19 cases

A health worker inoculates a woman with a dose of the Covishield vaccine against the COVID-19 coronavirus at a Public Health Centre (PHC) on the outskirts of Bangalore on Aug 11, 2021.
(MANJUNATH KIAN / AFP)

NEW DELHI / SINGAPORE / WELLINGTON / KUALA LUMPUR / MANILA –  After reporting over 21,000 daily cases for three straight days, India's daily COVID-19 caseload came down to 20,279 on Sunday, officials said.

According to federal health ministry data released on Sunday morning, the 20,279 new cases reported during the past 24 hours took the total tally to 43,888,755 in the country

According to federal health ministry data released on Sunday morning, the 20,279 new cases reported during the past 24 hours took the total tally to 43,888,755 in the country.

The cases reported on Sunday mark a decrease in comparison to the daily caseload of Saturday which was 21,411.

With the reporting of fresh cases, India's active caseload currently stands at 152,200.

The country also logged 36 related deaths during this period, which has pushed the overall death toll to 526,033 since the beginning of the pandemic, the ministry said.

The daily positivity rate has risen to 5.29 percent and the weekly positivity rate was 4.46 percent, the ministry data showed.

The ministry said so far 43,210,522 people have been successfully cured and discharged from hospitals, of whom 18,143 were discharged during the past 24 hours.

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According to the federal health ministry, the cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage in the country exceeded 2 billion doses and until Sunday morning 2,019,933,453 doses were administered.

So far over 872 million COVID-19 tests have been conducted across the country.

A cumulative total of 872,520,064 samples have been tested up to July 23, the Indian Council of Medical Research said Sunday. Out of these, 383,657 tests were conducted on Saturday alone.

On Friday the Indian government stated an estimated 40 million eligible beneficiaries in the country have not taken even a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

In the wake of the detection of new variants, at present the Indian government is focussing on promoting booster doses as the uptake of the third dose has been low.

Local governments in various states have issued advisories urging people to wear face masks and follow COVID-19 protocols in mass gatherings.

Malaysia

Malaysia reported 4,816 new COVID-19 infections as of midnight Saturday, bringing the national total to 4,648,931, according to the health ministry.

There are two new imported cases, with 4,814 cases being local transmissions, data released on the ministry's website showed.

Another nine deaths have been reported, pushing the death toll to 35,911.

The ministry reported 3,928 new recoveries, bringing the total number of cured and discharged to 4,563,473.

There are 49,547 active cases, with 49 being held in intensive care and 28 of those in need of assisted breathing.

People visit a COVID-19 testing station during a nationwide lockdown in Wellington on Au 18, 2021.
(MARTY MELVILLE / AFP)

New Zealand

New Zealand reported 5,535 new community cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, said the Ministry of Health in a statement.

The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers of COVID-19 in New Zealand now sits at 8,563. The ministry also reported 720 current hospitalizations including 21 cases in ICU (intensive care unit) or HDU (High Dependency Unit), and 14 deaths of COVID-19 on Sunday.

In addition, there were 318 new cases of COVID-19 that have recently travelled overseas, according to the ministry.

New Zealand has reported 1,551,939 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The total number of publicly reported deaths with COVID-19 reached 1,990 in the country, according to the ministry.

New Zealand is currently under the orange settings of the COVID-19 Protection Framework, where there is no limit for gatherings.

Children walk home with their guardians after school in Singapore on May 17, 2021, as the country prepares to shut all schools and switch to home-based learning until the end of the term due to a rise in the number of Covid-19 coronavirus cases. (Roslan RAHMAN / AFP)

Singapore

Singapore reported 7,889 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing the total tally to 1,652,981.

Of the new cases, 804 cases were detected through PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests and 7,085 through ART (antigen rapid test) tests, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health.

Among the PCR cases, 763 were local transmissions and 41 were imported cases. Among the ART cases with mild symptoms and assessed to be of low risk, there were 6,829 local transmissions and 256 imported cases, respectively.

A total of 739 cases are currently warded in hospitals, with 11 cases in intensive care units.

Four deaths were reported from COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing the total death toll to 1,472, the ministry said. 

Philippines

The Philippines reported 3,604 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday, the highest since Feb 12, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the country to 3,748,979.

The Department of Health said the number of active cases rose to 25,743.

The DOH said 14 more people died from COVID-19 complications, pushing the country's death toll to 60,670.

Of the total tally, 1,324 new cases were recorded in Metro Manila, home to over 13 million people.