HONG KONG, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh and Japan's Tokyo reported the highest daily tally of COVID-19 cases on Saturday, with the World Bank approving a fast-track 100 million U.S. dollars financing to help Bangladesh fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tokyo confirmed 118 new cases of COVID-19 as of 4:00 p.m. local time on Saturday, a metropolitan government official said, the first time the daily increase has topped 100.
This pushes the total number of COVID-19 cases to 891 in the Japanese capital, the highest among the 47 prefectures of the country.
The World Bank has approved a fast-track 100 million U.S. dollars financing to help Bangladesh fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, as the total number of confirmed cases in country reached 70.
Bangladesh's COVID-19 death toll rose to eight, with two more fatalities and nine new cases reported in the last 24 hours, the biggest daily jump in positive cases over a 24-hour period, according to Meerjady Sabrina Flora, head of the country's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) under the Health Ministry.
South Korea's reported cases of the COVID-19 rose to 10,156 as of midnight Saturday local time as 94 more cases were confirmed for the past 24 hours.
Three more deaths were confirmed, lifting the death toll to 177 and a total of 304 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 6,325.
The number of COVID-19 infections in Thailand has surpassed 2,000, a government official said, with international flights landing in the country being suspended for three days.
According to Thaveesilp Wisanuyothin, spokesman of the Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration, the number of Thailand's patients has totaled 2,067, including 89 newly reported cases.
Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha ordered the authorities to search for 152 Thai nationals who have avoided a government-provided quarantine after returning from overseas.
A total of 57 people have died of the COVID-19 in Malaysia with 150 newly confirmed cases, bringing the total cases to 3,483, the Health Ministry said.
The Indonesian government said the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country jumped to 2,092, with the death toll climbing to 191.
Medical materials from Vietnam arrived in Lao capital Vientiane by a chartered plane on Saturday morning to assist Laos to fight against COVID-19.
The supplies included 333,000 standard face mask, 1,000 of protective clothing sets, and some medical equipment, which is worth over 300,000 U.S dollars, Lao News Agency (KPL) reported.
About 50 Qantas and Jetstar airline staff, including pilots and cabin crew, have tested positive for COVID-19 in Australia, according to local media on Saturday.
The latest cases include eight pilots and 19 crew, the company's medical officer Russell Brown was quoted as saying.
The Australian government has announced a funding boost for coronavirus vaccine research.
Greg Hunt, the Minister for Health, committed 220 million Australian dollars (131.9 million U.S. dollars) to upgrade the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)'s state-of-the-art biosecurity facility.
India's federal health ministry said the death toll due to COVID-19 in India rose to 68 and the total number of confirmed cases in the country reached 2,902.
According to the data updated by the Health Ministry of Pakistan late Friday night, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has risen to 2,547 in the country, with 37 deaths reported.
Afghanistan on Saturday reported 25 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 299, spokesman of the country's Ministry of Public Health said.
The Afghan Ministry of Public Health registered one new death from COVID-19, bringing the total number of fatalities to seven.
Fiji reported five more confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number to 12.
New Zealand reported 52 new confirmed and 30 new probable cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of confirmed and probable infections to 950.
