Asia Today: S. Korea's increase low, Maldives has 1st death

BANGKOK (AP) — South Korea reported four more cases of coronavirus infection in its first daily increase below five in about two months.

The Koreas Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement Thursday the country’s totals were now 10,765 cases with 247 deaths. It said 9,059 people have recovered and been released from quarantine.

The four new cases were all imported. Local media said it was the first time South Korea had no daily increase of local infections since Feb. 15.

South Korea’s caseload has been slowing in recent weeks after it recorded hundreds of new cases every day between late February and early March.

South Korea has subsequently relaxed some of its social distancing guidelines. It expected to ease up on more restrictions in coming days if its caseload maintains a decline.

In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:

— MALDIVES HAS FIRST DEATH: Maldives has reported its first death from the new coronavirus with 280 infections. Health Minister Abdulla Ameen said the victim was a 83-year-old woman from the capital, Male. The first cases of COVID-19 were reported at tourist resorts in this Indian Ocean archipelago, and authorities for sometime kept it from spilling over into the community. However, the number of patients has spiked suddenly on the capital island and far-off islands with no traceable source of infection.

— SRI LANKA REIMPOSING CURFEW: Sri Lanka’s government is reimposing a 24-hour curfew Thursday evening after a resurgence of coronavirus cases. Almost half of the 630 patients on the Indian Ocean island nation were reported in the past week, and many of them are navy sailors or their close contacts. The blanket curfew was originally imposed March 20 but had been eased to a nighttime curfew recently for...