People wearing face masks as a precaution against the coronavirus stand inside a train in Jakarta, Indonesia, Dec 28, 2021. (TATAN SYUFLANA / AP)
BANGKOK / BENGALURU / ISLAMABAD / JAKARTA / JERUSALEM / KUALA LUMPUR / SYDNEY / WELLINGTON – Indonesian health authorities were conducting contact tracing on Tuesday after detecting the Southeast Asian country's first case of the fast-spreading Omicron coronavirus variant in the community, health ministry official Siti Nadia Tarmizi said.
The first confirmed case was a 37-year-old male who was from the city of Medan and had visited a restaurant in Jakarta's central business district earlier this month, Tarmizi told a news conference.
The man had no recent history of overseas travel or contacts with international travelers, Tarmizi said, adding he was asymptomatic and was in isolation at a Jakarta hospital, after he had initially isolated at home.
Earlier this month, President Joko Widodo urged people to stick to health protocols after authorities said that an employee at an isolation hospital in Jakarta had tested positive for the variant.
Health authorities say that there have been 47 confirmed cases of Omicron in Indonesia, mostly imported cases of the variant, which experts say in initial studies appears to be more contagious but less virulent than previous variants.
A man has a swab taken at a drive-through COVID-19 testing clinic at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Dec 21, 2021. (RICK RYCROFT / AP)
Australia
Australia recorded another surge in COVID-19 infections on Tuesday as an outbreak of the highly infectious Omicron variant disrupted a staged reopening of the economy, while state leaders argued over domestic border controls.
The three most populous states, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, reported just under 10,000 new cases between them the previous day, putting the country on course to eclipse the previous day's record total of 10,186 cases.
The new COVID-19 outbreak has also fueled a resumption of fractious domestic politics which defined much of the pandemic as some states in Australia resist calls to remove internal border controls
The country's five other states and territories, which have also been experiencing flareups of the virus, were yet to report figures.
The new outbreak has also fueled a resumption of fractious domestic politics which defined much of the pandemic as some states resist calls to remove internal border controls.
NSW, home to Sydney and a third of Australia's 25 million population, called on neighboring Queensland to shift from mandatory clinical testing to on-the-spot rapid antigen testing for people travelling to the tourist-popular state following complaints of hours-long wait times.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said a quarter of his state's PCR tests were "tourism tests", causing enormous pressure of the health system, extraordinary long testing queues and wait times for results, sometimes for days.
Queensland has promised to review its border testing rules from Jan 1, but Hazzard urged Queensland to drop the rule immediately.
Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath did not respond to Hazzard's comments about border testing at a news conference, but said the state would remove another testing rule for interstate arrivals: people arriving in the state would no longer have to take a virus test five days after arriving.
Australia's international border remains effective closed, but Australian nationals may return without mandatory hotel quarantine and the country has said it would allow certain skilled workers and foreign students in.
People line up to register their names to receive COVID-19 vaccine in Hyderabad, India, Dec 27, 2021. (MAHESH KUMAR A. / AP)
India
India has approved Merck's COVID-19 pill and two more vaccines for emergency use as the world's second most populous country braces for a possible spike in coronavirus cases due to the rapidly spreading Omicron variant.
Asia's third-largest economy has already said it will allow COVID-19 booster shots for some of its population as some Indian states logged an uptick in Omicron cases.
The emergency approvals come at a time measures are being taken to ramp up oxygen supplies and strengthen the country's health infrastructure.
Molnupiravir will be manufactured in India by 13 companies for restricted use under emergency situation for treatment of adult patients with COVID-19, the country's Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Tuesday.
Merck's anti-viral pill molnupiravir was authorized by the United States last week for certain high-risk adult patients and has been shown to reduce hospitalizations and deaths by around 30 percent in a clinical trial.
Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, will be the only shot available to children aged 15 to 18 when inoculation begins for them from Jan 3, the Indian health ministry said in its guidelines released on Monday.
"This (Covaxin) is the only vaccine with emergency use listing for the age-group 15-18," the federal health ministry said on Monday.
COVID-19 infections are decreasing in India, with 6,642 new cases reported on average each day. That represents 2 percent of the highest daily average reported on May 9. There have been 34.8 million infections and nearly 480,000 deaths coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began.
However, India has reported a swift rise in Omicron cases, with the number of overall infections crossing 400 across 17 Indian states.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been accelerating its vaccination campaign, administering at least one dose to 90 percent of the eligible 944 million population, while 62 percent have taken both doses.
As millions still await second shots, the authorities will now start offering booster shots to healthcare and frontline workers, who suffered from an overwhelming second-wave of the virus in the summer that killed tens of thousands.
The federal government has also urged states to impose curbs on overcrowding in the festive season until the new year and a few states have partially banned public celebrations.
Israel
Israel decided to speed up the administration of the third vaccine dose against COVID-19, the Israeli Health Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Nachman Ash, director-general of the ministry, has instructed to shorten the minimum time period between the second and third vaccine doses from five to three months, said the statement.
The decision is intended to address the fifth wave of the pandemic caused by the Omicron COVID-19 variant in the country, it added.
To date, around 5.9 million people in Israel, or 62.8 percent of the country's population, have received the second dose of the vaccine. About 4.2 million people, or 45 percent of the population, have received the third booster dose.
READ MORE: Israel starts vaccinating young children as COVID-19 cases rise
Malaysia
Malaysia has lifted a travel ban on eight southern African countries that had first reported the Omicron variant of the coronvirus, citing the greater spread of the variant worldwide, its health minister said on Tuesday.
The eight countries, which include South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi, will remain on a list of nations deemed as high-risk, with travellers from those nations subject to additional restrictions upon arrival, minister Khairy Jamaluddin told reporters.
New Zealand
New Zealand reported 18 new Delta variant cases of COVID-19 in the community on Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country's current community outbreak to 10,670.
Among the new infections, 13 were recorded in New Zealand's largest city of Auckland, three in nearby Waikato, one in Bay of Plenty, and one in the Lakes, according to the Ministry of Health.
The ministry also reported that a woman in her 70s infected with COVID-19 died Monday night at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital.
A total of 54 cases are being treated in hospitals, including eight in intensive care units or high dependency units, a ministry statement said. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in New Zealand stands at 13,562.
Disinfectant is sprayed in a residential area in an effort to contain the outbreak of the coronavirus, in Karachi, Pakistan, Dec 17, 2021. (FAREED KHAN / AP)
Pakistan
Pakistan confirmed 301 new COVID-19 cases over the last 24 hours, the National Command and Operation Center said on Monday.
The NCOC also reported two deaths over the same period, bringing the death toll to 28,909.
The country has conducted 23,189,338 tests so far, confirming 1,293,715 cases in total, it said.
Pakistan's southern Sindh province is the most affected region in terms of the number of cases with 480,710 infections, followed by the eastern Punjab province, which has reported 444,610 infections.
Thailand
Thailand's Ministry of Public Health on Monday issued a level 3 warning all over the country after 514 cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 have been detected.
The warning is based on rising concerns over a possible surge in new cases after the holiday season which has seen a high level of people mobility, said Opas Karnkawinpong, director-general of the Disease Control Department from the Ministry of Public Health.
There are five warning levels in Thailand, where the fifth one refers to curfew, strict mobility and public gathering control and quarantine scheme for all travelers.
According to the officials, the number of new Omicron cases has soared five-fold, from 104 last Tuesday to currently at 514.
Nevertheless, the Ministry of Public Health is still confident that the country still has sufficient hospital beds to handle the situation, citing its low 10 percent occupancy rate at present.