The number of people infected with COVID-19 continues to decline in China. The Asian country reported 40 new cases and 22 new deaths as of March 8. The total number of infected patients is now at 80,735 and fatalities are now at 3,119.
The majority of cases in China were treated and since most people were dismissed from the hospitals, the local government of Wuhan said 11 out of 14 makeshift hospitals were closed.
As the rest of the Asian region is now cramming to contain the virus, China is on track to report business as usual in the coming weeks. Major courier companies outside Hubei have resumed work, including Alibaba's logistic affiliate Cainiao. Alibaba's e-commerce platform Taobao has processed more than 100 million packages as of Sunday night.
On the other hand, theme parks remained on their temporary shutdown. Shanghai Disneyland is set to partially resume this week for a limited number of guests as well as a limited number of shopping and dining establishments.
Meanwhile, 10 people were confirmed dead in the collapse of a Quanzhou hotel. The establishment was used for COVID-19 quarantines. As of Sunday, it was believed that there are still 23 people who are trapped in the remains of the collapsed hotel. A total of 48 people were rescued but only 38 were alive.
In Hong Kong, the government confirmed its third death due to COVID-19 infection while confirming four new cases, bringing the total number of patients to 114.
South Korea reported 93 new cases as of Sunday. The republic remained to have the largest number of infections next to China. In total, South Korea has 7,134 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
As of Sunday, Vietnam also reported a jump in cases to 29. Eight of the new patients are tourists who arrived in Hanoi from London. The country now has 101 suspected cases of infections all placed in quarantine while 23,228 people are still being tested.
There has also been a spike in cases in India. From just six last week, the country now has 34. The local government said it tested more than one million people so far.
Malaysia also just confirmed 99 new infections. With this, the government rejected a cruise ship to prevent more people from being infected.
As of Sunday, the cruise ship in question, Costa Fortuna, is said to be on track to Singapore which has no plans of receiving it as well. The ship is carrying 2,000 people and has been on a 14-day voyage that started at Marina Bay Cruise Center about two weeks ago. It has been in Thailand's Ko Samui and Leam Chabang, and then in Cambodia's Sihanoukville.
As of March 8, here are the cumulative cases and the number of new infections in countries within Asia but outside China.
Republic of Korea 7134 (new cases 367)
Japan 455 48
Singapore 138
Malaysia 93 10
Australia 74 12
Vietnam 21 4
Philippines 6 1
New Zealand 5 0
Cambodia 2 1
Thailand 50 2
India 34 3
Indonesia 4 0
Maldives 2 2
Bhutan 1 0
Nepal 1 0
Sri Lanka 1 0
