Residents queue for COVID-19 vaccination in Marikina City, suburban Manila, Philippines, on Aug 6, 2021.
(TED ALJIBE / AFP)
TOKYO / SYDNEY / PHNOM PENH / TEHRAN / YANGON / SINGAPORE / SEOUL / ANKARA / SUVA / NEW DELHI / ULAN BATOR / VIENTIANE / ISLAMABAD – The Philippines will allow the general public to get COVID-19 vaccines starting next month, after initially prioritizing health and essential workers, the elderly and the poor.
The government is also expecting to begin inoculations for minors in October as vaccine supply stabilizes.
President Rodrigo Duterte wants to require government employees to get vaccinated, telling those who don’t want COVID-19 shots to find other jobs, spokesman Harry Roque said.
Visitors relax on the beach and in the sea at Bangsaen Beach in Chonburi, Thailand, on June 14, 2020. (BLOOMBERG)
Thailand
Thailand is looking to attract Indian travelers during the traditional holiday season to boost its tourism-reliant economy that’s been hit hard by the absence of mass holidaymakers from countries including China.
The Thai tourism industry expects Indians to resume travel in large numbers next month during Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, said Somsong Sachaphimukh, vice president of the Thai Tourism Council. That should help spark a tourism revival as it coincides with the planned waiver of quarantine for vaccinated visitors from Nov 1, she said.
With the outbound Chinese travel not expected to resume anytime soon, Thailand is betting on travelers from other origins to take advantage of its relaxed rules for tourists. Indians, who made up the third-largest group of visitors to Thailand before the pandemic, may head again to Thai beaches for holidays, conferences and destination weddings, Somsong said.
“If Thailand plans to reopen the country and many of our tourism hubs in November, this year’s Diwali may be a great opportunity,” Somsong told an online briefing on Tuesday. “Indian travelers have a lot of spending power and a lot of potential.”
Thailand reported 9,489 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest daily tally since July 15, as the government plans to reopen borders and relax curbs on businesses.
The coutry will halve its mandatory quarantine to seven days for fully vaccinated visitors starting next month, and will remove any isolation period for such travelers in 10 key provinces, including Bangkok, in November to help revive its tourism-dependent economy.
Australia
Australia will introduce at-home testing for COVID-19 from Nov 1, as cases in Victoria surged past those in New South Wales (NSW) for the first time since July.
The measure also comes as Australia surpassed 100,000 confirmed cases.
As of Monday afternoon, there had been 99,032 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in Australia, according to the latest figures updated on Monday evening from the Department of Health.
On Tuesday morning, more than 1,700 new locally-acquired COVID-19 cases were reported across Australia, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the country since the start of the pandemic to beyond 100,000.
NSW, Australia's most populous state with Sydney as the capital city, reported 863 new cases and seven deaths.
There have been 316 COVID-19 related deaths in NSW since June 16, 2021, according to a statement from NSW Health.
A medical worker collects a swab sample at a drive-through COVID-19 testing station in Melbourne, Australia, on Aug 19, 2021. (WILLIAM WEST / AFP)
Victoria, the second-most populous state with Melbourne as the capital city, reported a further 867 new local cases and four deaths.
Some 76.7 percent of Australians have now received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Health Minister Greg Hunt.
ALSO READ: Vietnam virus hotspot 'may have 40% more unrecorded cases'
Meanwhile, Sydney residents who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 risk being barred from various social activities even when they are freed from stay-at-home orders in December, New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejkilian warned on Tuesday.
Separately, Queensland reinstated restrictions, including mandatory face masks indoors and outdoors, and limits on visitations to aged-care facilities, hospitals, disability accommodation and detention centers, as the state grappled with a sudden outbreak of COVID-19.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh received 2.5 million Pfizer vaccine doses from the US on Tuesday under the COVAX facility, as the South Asian nation speeds up its inoculation drive.
Bangladesh started a daylong drive Tuesday to vaccinate as many as 7.5 million people to coincide with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s birthday.
Cambodia
A new batch of 3 million doses of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, on Tuesday, a senior health official said.
A plane carrying the vaccine, purchased from Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech, landed at the capital's airport shortly before 11 am local time Tuesday, said Ministry of Health (MoH) Secretary of State Yok Sambath.
"This new batch of Sinovac vaccine will be used to support our booster dose campaign," she told reporters.
Cambodia's Ministry of Education on Monday gave a green light to public and private universities to reopen after the majority of the population in the kingdom has been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said in a statement that educators and students, who have been fully vaccinated with two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, are given priority to return to in-person classes, while those older than 50 years old or have underlying health conditions are advised to continue learning online.
Cambodia has administered at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccines to 13.12 million people, or 82 percent of its 16-million population, health ministry's secretary of state and spokeswoman Or Vandine said on Monday.
Of them, 10.88 million, or 68 percent, have been fully vaccinated with both required shots, and 869,680, or 5.4 percent, have received a booster dose, she said in a report.
Fiji
Fiji has reported 52 new cases of COVID-19 and 13,045 active cases.
The Health Ministry’s permanent secretary James Fong said on Tuesday a total of 50,807 cases have been reported in Fiji so far.
Fong also said that two COVID-19 deaths were reported for July 29, adding that the two deaths are being reported now due to the delay in the issuance of the official death certificates.
In total, Fiji has reported 592 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 590 of these deaths recorded during the outbreak that began in April.
Meanwhile, Fiji's Ministry of Education said they have a fully vaccinated workforce.
As Sept 26, 591,293 adults in Fiji have received their first dose of a vaccine and 425,902 have received two doses.
India
India reported 179 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, the smallest rise since the middle of March, taking the tally to 447,373.
Infections rose by 18,795, the smallest increase since early March, lifting the total to about 33.7 million, health ministry data showed.
India's drug regulator on Tuesday allowed vaccine maker Serum Institute to enrol kids aged 7-11 years for its trial of US drugmaker Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine, as the country prepares to protect children from the novel coronavirus.
The South Asian nation has already administered more than 870 million doses to adults among its population of nearly 1.4 billion.
Iran
The Iranian Health Ministry reported on Monday 14,470 new COVID-19 cases, taking the country's total infections to 5,547,990.
According to an official briefing, the pandemic has claimed 119,649 lives in the country so far, after 289 deaths were registered in the past 24 hours.
Evening diners wait for vacant seats at a restaurant in Tokyo on Sept 24, 2021. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP)
Japan
The Japanese government will end this week the COVID-19 state of emergency in Tokyo and 18 prefectures as well as the quasi-state of emergency in other areas, as the number of infections declined steadily, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Tuesday.
Japan's coronavirus advisory panel has approved a government plan to end the state of emergency and quasi-measures on Thursday as scheduled.
It would be the first time since April 4 that none of Japan's 47 prefectures is under either a state of emergency or a quasi-state of emergency.
"The number of new COVID-19 cases and patients with severe symptoms have dramatically declined," Suga said at a committee meeting at the House of Representatives.
Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who also oversees Japan's coronavirus response, said earlier in the day some limitations on eateries and large-scale events would remain in place for about a month to prevent a resurgence in cases.
"We need to continue with the necessary measures to prevent a rebound," he said, adding that if cases surged again, reinstatement of a more limited "quasi emergency" was possible.
Restaurants in areas under emergency curbs are now required to close by 8 pm and not serve alcohol.
Nishimura said the government would introduce a certification system whereby only approved restaurants could stay open until 9 pm, although the ban on alcohol would be lifted everywhere unless prefectural governors objected.
New daily cases have steadily fallen over the past month to 1,128 nationwide on Monday, according to the health minister, nearly halving from the 2,129 on Sunday and down from a daily high of about 25,000 infections at the peak.
Nearly 60 percent of the population is fully vaccinated.
The country has approved GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology's Sotrovimab as an antibody treatment for coronavirus, Health Minister Norihisa Tamura said on Monday.
Laos
The Lao Ministry of Health on Tuesday called for continued vigilance as local cases of COVID-19 continued to increase and spread across multiple provinces in the country.
Deputy Director General of the Department of Communicable Diseases Control under the Lao Ministry of Health Sisavath Soutthaniraxay said at a press conference that out of the 5,911 tests conducted across the country over the past 24 hours, 500 cases were confirmed.
As of Tuesday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Laos reached 22,941 with 16 deaths.
Malaysia
Malaysia recorded 10,959 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Monday, bringing the tally to 2,209,194, according to the health ministry.
An additional 258 deaths took the death toll to 25,695.
The country reported 323,335 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered on Monday alone, and that some 70.5 percent of its population have received at least one dose while 60.6 percent are fully vaccinated.
Mongolia
Mongolia's health sector is now in a difficult situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic with its workload having "reached its peak," Health Minister Sereejav Enkhbold said Monday.
Even if additional beds are prepared at hospitals, there is now no medical staff to work there, he told a press conference, urging the public to follow all relevant health guidelines to protect themselves and their loved ones.
Although over 65 percent of the country's population of around 3.4 million have been fully vaccinated, the resurgence of COVID-19 has continued due to the Delta wave, and more than 2,000 infections and nearly 20 deaths have been reported daily in the country.
Mongolia registered 2,153 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing its national tally to 298,519, the health ministry said Tuesday.
The death toll rose by 17 to 1,169.
Myanmar
Myanmar reported 1,282 new COVID-19 cases with a daily test positivity rate of 7.2 percent, bringing the tally to 459,436 cases in the country on Monday, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health.
The death toll has increased to 17,583 on Monday after 56 more deaths were reported, according to the statement.
New Zealand
New Zealand reported eight new Delta variant cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed coronavirus infections in the country's community outbreak to 1,185.
The new infections were all recorded in the largest city Auckland, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said at a press conference.
New Zealand also reported four cases involving recent returnees at the border. The patients remained in quarantine in Auckland and Christchurch.
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in New Zealand since the start of the pandemic stands currently at 3,848, according to the health ministry.
Pakistan
Pakistan has decided to administer COVID-19 vaccines to citizens aged 12 and above, Chairman of the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) Asad Umar said on Tuesday.
"Special drive will be run for vaccination at schools to make it easier for children to be vaccinated," Umar said on Twitter.
The country reported 1,400 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, raising the tally to 1,241,825, the NCOC said.
The death toll rose by 41 to 27,638 the NCOC said.
Singapore
Singapore reported 1,647 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total tally in the country to 89,539.
Of the new cases, 1,280 were in the community, 362 were in migrant worker dormitories and five were imported cases, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a statement.
South Korea
South Korea is considerating easing social distancing rules for fully vaccinated people from the end of October or early November, when 80 percent of adults and 90 percent of the elderly complete their vaccinations, according to Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol.
It’s very difficult to maintain current strong social distancing rules, given that small merchants have been hit by COVID-19 and people are growing tired of prolonged distancing rules, the minister said.
South Korea reported 2,289 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Monday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 305,842.
Nineteen cases were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 14,385.
Eight more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 2,464. The total fatality rate stood at 0.81 percent.
READ MORE: South Korea readies booster rollout for 'high-risk groups'
Turkey
Turkey on Monday reported 27,188 new COVID-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 7,066,688, according to its health ministry.
The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 206 to 63,372, while 25,160 more people recovered in the last 24 hours.
Vietnam
Vietnam reported 4,589 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, the first time the number was below 5,000 since July 20, according to the country's Ministry of Health.
The new infections included 4,583 locally transmitted and six imported, taking the country's total tally to 770,640, with 18,936 deaths, the ministry said.