Regional nations see surge in new COVID-19 cases

Southeast Asian countries continued to record an increasing number of new COVID-19 cases on May 13.

Passengers at Singapore's Changi airport

Singapore reported 32 new infections, including 24 cases in the community, according to the Ministry of Health.

This is the highest number of locally-transmitted cases in the country since July 11 last year. Of them, 17 had links to the outbreak at Changi airport, raising the total number to 42.

To date, Singapore has logged 61,451 COVID-19 cases and 31 fatalities.

On the same day, Laos had an additional 65 infections, with 15 imported cases which were quarantined upon arrival.

After more than 10 days of daily new cases standing under 20, Vientiane capital saw a higher number of new infections with 26, all of them in the community.

Laos reported a total of 1,482 COVID-19 cases, most of them are domestic infections detected since late April, along with one death.

Meanwhile, the Cambodian Health Ministry announced that the country documented 446 new infections in the past 24 hours, 431 of them and six fatalities had links to the February 20 community event.

The country’s count reached 21,141, with a death toll of 142.

The Philippines saw 6,385 new cases and 107 fatalities, raising the total to more than 1.12 million and 18,821, respectively.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is set to unveil new quarantine regulations during a public speech on May 13./.

VNA