Asia Today: India reports 41,100 new coronavirus cases

India has reported 41,100 new cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, taking the country’s overall tally since the pandemic began to 8.79 million

Hindu Festival Virus OutBreak India (Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

India has reported 41,100 new cases of the coronavirus, raising the country’s overall tally since the pandemic began to 8.79 million a day after it celebrated Diwali, a major Hindu festival.

The Health Ministry on Sunday also reported 447 deaths in the same period, driving total fatalities to 129,635.

India is second in the world in total reported cases behind the U.S., but daily infections have been on the decline since the middle of September. There has been, however, a resurgence of infections in New Delhi which has seen a renewed surge in recent weeks, recording more new cases than any other Indian state.

On Sunday, New Delhi registered 7,340 new cases, including 96 deaths.

In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:

— Authorities in Sri Lanka say about 400 inmates and officers in the country’s highly congested prisons have tested positive for the coronavirus as infections spike in the capital and its suburbs. Twelve of those who tested positive are officers, while the rest are inmates. The cases were detected at five prisons in different parts of the country Sri Lankan prisons are filled with more than 26,000 inmates in facilities meant to hold 10,000. The island nation has seen a fresh outbreak of the virus since last month when two clusters — one centered at a garment factory and another at a fish market — emerged in the capital, Colombo, and its suburbs. The confirmed cases from the two clusters have grown to 13,079. Sri Lanka has confirmed a total of 16,582 cases, including 53 deaths.