S. Korea confident; India boosts aid

SEOUL－South Korea's health authorities said on Wednesday they had no immediate plans to reinstate strict social distancing rules despite a fresh increase in coronavirus cases.

Vice-Health Minister Kim Gang-lip said that bringing back the movement restrictions was unlikely as long as the daily number of new cases remained below 50 and officials were able to trace 95 percent of all infections linked to an outbreak in the Itaewon district of Seoul.

The country's number of confirmed cases rose by 26 to 10,962 on Wednesday.

The outbreak in the Seoul district prompted officials to re-shutter some nightclubs and bars as well as delay the planned reopening of schools by a week, but the government has stood by its decision to ease broader restrictions by reopening offices, public facilities and sports centers.

In Japan, at least 142 companies had gone bankrupt due to the coronavirus outbreak, said Teikoku Databank, a credit research firm, as the number of infections reached 16,759 in the country with 691 deaths as of Wednesday.

On the medical front, Japan's health ministry approved on Wednesday a simpler and faster antigen test for the coronavirus, which can produce results in about 30 minutes.

The new test kit will be used mainly at designated hospitals in Tokyo, Osaka and places with large numbers of infections.

In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled on Tuesday a stimulus package worth 10 percent of the country's GDP to help laborers and small businesses as the economy reels from the pandemic and a weekslong lockdown.

New momentum

The 20-trillion-rupee ($266 billion) economic package "will give a new momentum to India's development journey and put India on the road to self-reliance", Modi said.

As of Wednesday morning, India had reported 74,281 cases with 2,415 deaths.

Pakistan on Wednesday crossed the 2,000 mark for new coronavirus cases in a single day, the first time it had done so since the start of the outbreak earlier. That day the total number of cases rose to 34,336.

The increase comes days after Prime Minister Imran Khan eased lockdown restrictions and stepped up the pace of returns of Pakistanis stranded overseas, dismissing pleas for stricter controls by Pakistan's medical professionals before doing so.

Khan argues that the lockdown is hurting the country's poorest the hardest. The vast majority of Pakistanis earn barely $75 a month, mostly in construction and other daily-wage work.

Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, Thailand on Wednesday saw no new case, the first time since Jan 13 when the first case was recorded in the country, said a spokesman for the country's Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration.

In the Pacific region, New Zealand reported on Wednesday no cases for two consecutive days, with the number of confirmed and probable cases remaining at 1,497. The country was due to relax lockdown restrictions from May 14.

In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said the country would continue to be on high alert over the pandemic as the country's infections rose to 141,475.

Xinhua - Agencies