A staff member checks information of a foreigner entering South Korea at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea, April 8, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua)

South Korea's daily COVID-19 cases surged on church-linked infections on Sunday while India's death toll increased to near 50,000.

South Korea's daily confirmed COVID-19 cases surged to 279 owing to cluster infections linked to church services, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The total number of COVID-19 infections reached 15,318 as of 0:00 a.m. Sunday local time.

India's COVID-19 tally reached 2,589,682 as 49,980 deaths have taken place so far across the country, according to the latest health ministry data. As many as 63,490 new COVID-19 cases were detected, and 944 people died due to the virus in the country in the past 24 hours.

Malaysia reported 25 new COVID-19 infections, the Health Ministry said on Sunday, bringing the national total to 9,200. Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that among the new cases 16 are imported and nine are local transmissions.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines surged to 161,253 as the Department of Health (DOH) reported 3,420 new daily cases.

The number of recoveries rose to 112,586 after 40,397 more patients recovered, the DOH said. The death toll also increased to 2,665 after 65 more patients died.

COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 2,081 within one day to 139,549, with the death toll adding by 79 to 6,150, the Health Ministry said.

Afghanistan reported 48 new COVID-19 cases within the past 24 hours, bringing the total tally in the country to 37,599, the Ministry of Public Health said.

New Zealand reported 13 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, said Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield from New Zealand Ministry of Health. Of these cases, 12 were from the community in Auckland and one was from a managed isolation facility.