A Pakistani lab technician takes a sample with a swab to test for the coronavirus at the PIMS Hospital, in Islamabad, Pakistan on Jan 3, 2022. (RAHMAT GUL / AP)
TOKYO / SINGAPORE / JERUSALEM / ANKARA / KUALA LUMPUR / SYDNEY / NEW DELHI / ISLAMABAD – Pakistan reported 7,678 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, the highest number of fresh cases in a day since the pandemic started in the country in 2020, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Friday.
The overall tally of the infected people climbed to 1,353,479 across the country, said the NCOC, the department leading Pakistan's campaign against the pandemic.
Pakistan's southern Sindh province has been the worst hit, with a total of 516,874 cases, followed by the eastern Punjab province where the virus was detected in 458,879 people.
A total of 29,065 people died of COVID-19 in Pakistan, including 23 patients who lost their lives to the pandemic over the last 24 hours, the NCOC said.
Staff check a client at a drive-through COVID-19 testing clinic at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia on Jan 8, 2022. (MARK BAKER / AP)
Australia
Australia will remain a divided nation with the vast mining state of Western Australia cancelling plans to reopen its borders on Feb 5 citing health risks from a surge in the Omicron COVID-19 variant in eastern states.
Australia's most populous state New South Wales on Friday reported its deadliest day of the pandemic
NSW reported 46 deaths of patients with COVID-19 including one infant, while Victoria state saw 20 lives lost. Yet, a drop in hospitalizations in both states did offer hope the latest outbreak might have peaked.
All states and territories, except Western Australia, have reopened their internal borders under a policy of living with COVID-19, despite a record surge in cases. Western Australia was to follow suit next month.
However, Western Australia state Premier Mark McGowan made a shock announcement late on Thursday saying it would be "reckless and irresponsible" to open up given the rapid spread of Omicron.
Instead, re-opening would be delayed indefinitely or at least until the percentage of triple dose vaccinations reached 80 percent. It is currently around 26 percent.
"If we proceeded with the original plan, we would be deliberately seeding thousands upon thousands of COVID cases into WA and at this point in time that is not what I am going to do," McGowan told reporters.
McGowan said the original re-opening plan was based on the less transmissable Delta strain, not Omicron.
Presently there are only 83 active cases in the state, compared with 550,000 in the country as a whole, and just a handful of those are Omicron.
The decision will likely anger Prime Minister Scott Morrison who has long urged all the states to open up and learn to live with the virus.
"I know that many West Australians will this morning be very disappointed and they will be asking the question 'if not now, when?'" Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told Sky News.
Some WA travel conditions are still set to change on Feb 5 including allowing more people in for compassionate reasons, though they would still have to isolate for 14 days.
A policeman stands guard at the deserted wholesale Sadar Bazar market during a weekend lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus in New Delhi, India on Jan 15, 2022. (ALTAF QADRI / AP)
India
India's capital is set to lift a weekend curfew and allow private offices to be partially staffed after a fall in new COVID-19 infections, a city government official said on Friday.
The number of new cases in Delhi has more than halved from a peak of 28,867 on Jan. 13 and more than 80 percent of COVID-19 beds across the city's hospitals were unoccupied, according to government data.
"In view of the declining cases of corona, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal approved the proposal," the official, who declined to be identified, said of a suggestion from authorities that the weekend curfew be scrapped.
The city's lieutenant governor, who must sign off on the city government's executive decisions, was expected to review the proposal and clear the way for its formal approval later on Friday.
Delhi has been one of the centres of India's coronavirus pandemic for the past two years and has endured various lockdowns and curfews over different waves of infection.
The city imposed the curfew on Jan 4 and ordered schools and restaurants to close as infections caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant surged.
The financial hub of Mumbai has also been reporting big falls in infections since hitting a peak earlier in the month.
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 38,566,027 on Friday as 347,254 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
This is the second consecutive day when over 300,000 daily cases were registered in more than eight months.
Besides, 703 deaths due to the pandemic since Thursday morning took the total death toll to 488,396.
An Israeli paramedic collects a swab sample from a child at the Magen David Adom (Red Shield of David) COVID-19 coronavirus testing center in Jerusalem on Jan 11, 2022. (MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP)
Israel
Israel will ditch mandatory quarantine for children exposed to COVID-19 carriers, the government said on Thursday, citing a need to relieve parents and schools as case numbers spiral due to the fast-spreading but low-morbidity Omicron variant.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that as of Jan 27, children will instead be required to take twice-weekly home antigen tests for the virus and, if they prove positive or feel unwell, absent themselves from school until they recover.
"Children are returning to continuity in schooling," he said during a televised address with his health and education ministers, adding that medical experts had determined that the young were on sufficiently "safe ground" to warrant the review.
The home kits will be supplied free of charge, he said.
The Israeli Ministry of Health on Thursday reported 64,940 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 2,101,265.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the virus rose to 8,369, with 19 new fatalities added, the highest daily figure since early October, 2021.
ALSO READ: Japan widens COVID-19 curbs, Omicron drives record infections
People wearing face masks to help protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk on a street lined with bars and restaurants in Tokyo on Jan 19, 2022. (KOJI SASAHARA / AP)
Japan
Pfizer Inc said on Friday it received special approval in Japan for its COVID-19 vaccine to be given to children aged 5-11.
The vaccine rollout for 8 million eligible children in this age group will start in March, informed sources said Friday after its approval was fast-tracked by the health ministry, making it the first vaccine to become available to this group in Japan.
The mRNA-type vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech SE at the moment is available to those in Japan aged 12 and over.
"We'd like to carefully explain the safety of the vaccine and start inoculation as soon as possible to those who wish to receive it," Noriko Horiuchi, minister in charge of promoting vaccine rollouts, told a press briefing.
"It is a big thing to have an inoculation option when some children are infected with the Omicron strain," she added.
The vaccine has been the most commonly used in Japan for protection against the coronavirus so far.
Travelers have their documents processed at the Woodlands temporary bus interchange before boarding a bus that will transport them to Malaysia from Singapore, Nov 29, 2021. (TOH EE MING / AP)
Malaysia
Malaysia has resumed ticket sales for air and land travel under a vaccinated travel lane program with Singapore that had been suspended until Jan 20 over Omicron coronavirus variant concerns, the health ministry said on Friday.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said in a statement said the ticket sales resumption follows a risk evaluation on the current COVID-19 situation in both countries.
The country will halve the ticket quota, however, for air and land travel. Increasing ticket quotas will be based on risk assessments from time to time on the COVID-19 situation in both countries, he said.
ALSO READ: Novavax vaccine, oral COVID-19 treatments approved in Australia
People wearing protective face masks walk along the Orchard Road shopping area in Singapore on Nov 28, 2021. (ANNABELLE LIANG / AP)
Singapore
Singapore will extend its COVID-19 booster vaccination program to adolescents aged 12 to 17 years from next month, its health ministry said on Friday.
Singapore is among the first few countries to recommend boosters for that age group, following Germany, the United States, Israel and Hungary.
Solomon Islands
The Solomon Islands has seen a surge in COVID-19 cases for the first time, with leaders warning of a worse situation.
The country has reported no COVID-19 fatalities throughout the pandemic.
Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said 48 locally transmitted cases were reported on Thursday, bringing the tally to 81.
The fast-evolving crisis is already crippling the nation's resources, said the Ministry of Health and Medical Services on Friday.
Sogavare, speaking at a press conference on Thursday, said the nation's largest hospital in the capital of Honiara had 56 beds, 50 of which were already occupied.
The outbreak has led the government to impose a snap lockdown on Honiara on Wednesday, which is due to continue until 6:00 am on Saturday.
Turkey
Turkey on Thursday reported 71,843 new COVID-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 10,736,215, according to its Health Ministry.
The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 166 to 85,419, while 85,948 more people recovered in the last 24 hours.