Some Asian countries that experienced the earliest coronavirus outbreaks in the world are seeing a decline in new cases and an increase in recoveries. However, other nations have also experienced a resurgence in new COVID-19 infections.
Wuhan Reports Zero Severe Patients
Wuhan, the origin city of the COVID-19 strain, reported that its coronavirus patients reached zero, as confirmed by a spokesperson for the National Health Commission (NHC), Mi Feng.
According to Xinhua, Mi revealed that the last person in critical care was cured on Friday, bringing the "ground zero" city's total number of COVID-19 severe patients to zero.
Furthermore, there were zero new confirmed coronavirus cases on Thursday in Hubei, the province where Wuhan is located, marking a massive change from the situation in the province in January and February.
As of Friday, China registered 83,884 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 4,636 deaths.
Zero New Deaths in South Korea
South Korea on Saturday reported 10 new coronavirus cases but the country also logged zero new deaths from the highly-infectious strain, the Yonhap News Agency reported.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) confirmed that of the new cases, four were imported. On the other hand, the country's death toll stayed at 240 for the past three days.
As for recoveries, South Korea now has a total of 8,635 recovered patients. The country now has a total of 10,718 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Japanese Golden Week Day 1 Sees Empty Expressways
Whenever Japan celebrates its Golden Week holiday, people usually flood expressways and bullet trains. However, the said sites for transportation seemed liked "ghost towns" on Saturday amid the coronavirus outbreak.
According to Kyodo News, there were some people who rode shinkansen trains at the Tokyo Station but over 90 percent were empty even if it was the first day of the Golden Week holiday.
The "new normal" in Japan was felt even more when a Yamagata Shinkansen train departed with zero passengers on Saturday morning, the East Japan Railway Co. confirmed.
Japan logged 13,500 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 358 deaths from the disease as of Friday.
9 New Clusters in Singapore
Singapore on Saturday detected nine new coronavirus clusters as the city-state continues to battle with a resurgence of COVID-19 infections among workers in foreign worker dormitories.
The new clusters included wellness spa Natureland East Coast as well as one at the Strand Hotel, marking a new uptrend in coronavirus clusters in Singapore, Channel News Asia reported.
Furthermore, the Singaporean Ministry of Health (MOH) also announced on Saturday that 897 new COVID-19 patients were registered, bringing the national total to 12,075.
It is worth noting that Singapore once saw a massive decline in new infections in March. However, a surge in infections in different foreign worker dormitories drove the numbers up again.
Singapore also used to be the only country with zero COVID-19 deaths early on in the global coronavirus outbreak. At this point, it now has the biggest number of confirmed cases in all of Southeast Asia.
