Cases hit fresh highs in Japan, S. Korea

TOKYO/SEOUL－Coronavirus infections in Tokyo and South Korea hit fresh single-day highs on Wednesday as Asia-Pacific countries that fared relatively well in the pandemic encounter setbacks.

That's also true of Australia, where a highly contagious strain of the virus forced a statewide lockdown.

Tokyo authorities announced nearly 500 new cases of the virus on Wednesday, the biggest daily increase in the Japanese capital since the pandemic began, amid a nationwide spike in infections.

The Tokyo metropolitan government said there were 493 new cases on Wednesday, surpassing the city's previous high of 472 recorded on Aug 1, during the peak of Japan's earlier wave of infections. Tokyo said officials were expected to meet on Thursday to discuss if the city needs to raise the alert to the highest level. South Korea also recorded its largest daily increase in infections in nearly three months as it gets set to tighten rules in the greater Seoul area.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 313 cases on Wednesday, raising the country's total to 29,311. It is the first time the country's daily caseload exceeded 300 since late August.

In Australia, the premier of South Australia state, Steven Marshall, announced a strict six-day lockdown in an attempt to prevent the spread of the virus.

Twenty-two cases have now been linked to a cluster that emerged from an Adelaide hotel used to quarantine travelers.

Globally, there were 55,645,915 confirmed cases and 1,338,668 deaths as of Wednesday afternoon, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University in the United States.

Spike in deaths

In Britain, the number of coronavirus-related deaths rose by 598 to 52,745, marking the highest daily number of fatalities since May 6.

In a development reported on Tuesday, Englishman Brian Stoodley, 67, told The Sun newspaper that he suspected he was the first to have been infected with the coronavirus in the United Kingdom in September last year, after a family holiday to Rome.

Stoodley of Dorchester, Dorset, told the newspaper: "A week after returning from Italy I started getting flu-like symptoms－a cough and breathlessness with a temperature that was creeping up.

"I'm almost 100 percent that I know I had coronavirus. I've been saying it to friends and family for months but I've always been told that I couldn't possibly have had it then, because the first cases were found in China in December that year."

He added: "But the reports now saying it was in Italy in September that year have vindicated me."

A study published last week in the scientific magazine Tumori Journal shows that the virus had existed in Italy before it was first detected in China.

Xinhua - Agencies