People wait to be monitored for possible side effects after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination center in Seoul, South Korea, Aug 5, 2021. (AHN YOUNG-JOON / AP)
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN / SUVA / KATHMANDU / SINGAPORE / PHNOM PENH / JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL / SYDNEY / DHAKA / SEOUL / NEW DELHI / ISLAMABAD / ULAN BATOR / KUALA LUMPUR / MANILA / BANGKOK / YANGON – South Korea is implementing for the first time an electronic travel authorization (ETA) system for overseas visitors from September, as the COVID-19 pandemic forces open the way for a policy previously opposed by the country's tourism industry.
The justice ministry said the system will be a long-term way to pre-emptively head off any contagious disease as well as limit the number of undocumented immigrants, which had risen in the years before the pandemic.
When border controls ease, the ETA system will be in place to help prevent the entry of infectious disease to the country by requiring travellers to share their previous two weeks of travel history, Justice Minister Park Beom-kye told Reuters in an interview.
It will also enable a prompt entry ban on a certain country if and when a contagious outbreak occurs, Park said.
The system will help sharply cut customs and processing times for travellers and make it a lot more convenient, he added. Before travelling, visitors will need to fill out an online application and pay a 10,000 won (US$8.64) fee. An ETA will be valid for two years with multiple entries.
South Korea's daily COVID-19 cases hit a record high due to the continued virus spread in the Seoul metropolitan area, the health authorities said Wednesday.
The country reported 2,223 more cases of the COVID-19 for the past 24 hours, raising the total number of infections to 216,206.
Thailand
Two coronavirus vaccines administered using a nasal spray being developed in Thailand are due to start human trials by the end of this year, after promising results in trials involving mice, a government official said on Wednesday.
Developed by the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, the vaccines are based on the adenovirus and influenza, deputy government spokeswoman Ratchada Thanadirek said.
After conducting trials in mice, the first phase of human trials should start by the end of this year, pending approval from the food and drug regulator, she said.
The trials will also test protection against the Delta variant, Ratchada said, with the second phase due in March next year and a target of production for wider use in mid-2022, if results are good, she said.
Thailand on Wednesday reported 21,038 new COVID-19 cases and 207 more fatalities, both the third-highest daily tally since the pandemic began, according to the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).
The country's total number of infections has risen to 816,989, and the death toll climbed to 6,795, according to the CCSA.
Myanmar
Myanmar reported 3,739 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the tally in the country to 341,300 on Wednesday, according to a release from the Ministry of Health.
A total of 218 more deaths were reported, bringing the death toll to 12,452 as of Wednesday, the release said.
According to the ministry's figures, a total of 256,671 patients have been discharged from the hospitals and over 3.29 million samples have been tested for COVID-19 so far.
The Chinese embassy in Myanmar on Wednesday donated 30,000 masks for the staff of the Customs Department in Yangon, according to the embassy's release.
The release said that the embassy has recently donated medical supplies such as masks to the various parts of Myanmar to support the people of the country in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
India
India's COVID-19 tally surpassed the 32-million mark, rising to 32,036,511 on Wednesday, as 38,353 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
As many as 497 deaths due to the pandemic since Tuesday morning took the death toll to 429,179.
Meanwhile, India's drugs controller – Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has given its approval to the study on mixing Covishield and Covaxin COVID-19 vaccines, officials said Wednesday.
The study and its clinical trials will be conducted by Christian Medical College (CMC) Vellore in Tamil Nadu.
"Permission has been granted for a research study by CMC Vellore (Tamil Nadu) on mixing of vaccines doses," V K Paul, member (health) of government think-tank National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog (commission) said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
Officials said the study will be different from the one conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which said mixing the two COVID-19 vaccines elicited better safety and immunogenicity results.
Students wait for their turn to receive their first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Sydney on Aug 9, 2021. (DEAN LEWINS / POOL / AFP)
Australia
The spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus from Sydney into regional areas of New South Wales state – which had 344 cases on Wednesday – has forced another Australian city into lockdown.
Dubbo, a city of about 50,000 people some 386 km from Sydney, is the latest to have stay-at-home orders enforced for at least one week after two cases of the infectious variant were detected, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters. Meanwhile Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, extended its lockdown for another week.
“Over the last two days we have seen a surge in the number of cases and we expect that to continue,” Berejiklian said after the state detected a record 356 delta cases the day before. There were two new fatalities in the state on Wednesday, with at least 17 of the new infections recorded in its regional areas.
Dubbo joins Sydney – Australia’s largest city with almost 6 million people – which has so far failed to bend the curve of new cases despite enforcing stay-at-home orders for more than six weeks.
In the past week, cities including Newcastle, Byron Bay and Tamworth also entered snap lockdowns after being exposed to delta, isolating them from the rest of the nation.
Melbourne recorded 20 new cases in the community on Wednesday. It will stay in lockdown for at least another seven days beyond Thursday, when the stay-at-home orders were due to lift. The city is in the midst of its sixth lockdown since the pandemic began.
The lockdowns in the nation’s two largest cities along with an increasing number of regional areas show the delta variant of the coronavirus is placing increased pressure on Australia’s so-called “COVID Zero” strategy. The outbreaks are also having an economic impact, with gross domestic product expected to contract this quarter.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh has received another batch of Chinese COVID-19 vaccine doses shipped via the COVAX Facility.
This is the first consignment among three scheduled to arrive from China this week, according to local health official.
Brunei
Brunei reported 34 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, including 32 local infections and two imported cases, bringing the national tally to 440.
According to Brunei's Ministry of Health, the source of infection of four local cases is still under investigation, while the rest 28 cases are related to active cases or clusters already identified.
The two imported cases arrived from Manila, the Philippines on July 28.
A worker transports a shipment of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines at Phnom Penh International Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Aug 1, 2021. (PHEARUM / XINHUA)
Cambodia
Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said Tuesday that 8 million adults aged 18 and above in the country have been inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines since the start of a vaccination drive on Feb 10.
"As of Aug 10, Cambodia has already provided at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines to 8 million adults, or 80 percent of the 10 million targeted adult population," Hun Sen wrote on his official Facebook page.
The number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths in Cambodia is on the gradual decline as more people have been vaccinated against the virus, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said on Wednesday.
The kingdom confirmed 486 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, a decrease from the peak day of 1,130 cases on June 30, the MoH said, adding that 12 more fatalities were reported Wednesday, a dramatic drop from the highest daily death toll of 39 recorded on July 15.
Fiji
Fiji's Permanent Secretary for Health James Fong confirmed on Tuesday 10 new COVID-19 deaths and 264 more cases in the country.
All deaths were reported from the Central Division on Viti Levu, the main island of Fiji.
There have now been 327 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, with 325 of them reported during the outbreak that started in April this year, Fong said.
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Israel
Israel's Ministry of Health reported 5,695 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the tally of infections in the country to 910,569.
The death toll from the coronavirus in Israel rose by 16 to 6,571, the ministry said.
A student receives a shot of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine by Tokyo Fire Department staff at the Tokyo Vaccination Center at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo on Aug 2, 2021. (STANISLAV KOGIKU / POOL PHOTO VIA AP)
Japan
Japan has administered more than 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines and surpassed the US in the proportion of elderly fully vaccinated, according to government figures released Tuesday.
The vaccination mark comes as Japan, like many other nations, is in the midst of a fresh wave of coronavirus infections attributed to the delta variant. Japan and its capital of Tokyo have reported record daily infection numbers for several days this month, as the Summer Olympics were drawing to a close.
Most of the new infections have been among those in their 20s and 30s, showing the impact of the gap in inoculation rates between the elderly and the rest of the population.
As of Tuesday, Japan had administered 102.9 million doses and 81.6 percent of its residents 65 or older were fully vaccinated, according to the prime minister’s office. That’s higher than the 80.4 percent of the same age group fully vaccinated in the US, according to Centers for Disease Control of Prevention data.
But in the US, 90.5 percent of those 65 and older have received at least one dose, higher than the 87.6 percent in Japan.
Japan also has a lower percentage of its population fully vaccinated than any member of the Group of Seven advanced nations. Japan is at 32.9 percent, compared with 50.8 percent in the US and 59 percent in the UK, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s vaccine tracker.
A poll carried out by public broadcaster NHK Aug 7-9 found 75 percent of respondents thought Japan’s vaccine rollout was “slow,” while only 18 percent said it was “smooth.”
Malaysia
Malaysia recorded a total of 44,307 deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the second quarter of 2021, an increase of 10.1 percent as compared to 40,241 deaths last year, official data showed Wednesday.
The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) said in a statement that a total of 3,898 deaths due to COVID-19 were recorded in the second quarter, a surge from 78 deaths for the same period in 2020.
The data also showed the highest deaths due to COVID-19 were recorded by the age group 65 to 69 years and followed by the age group 70 to 74 years.
Mongolia
Mongolia's COVID-19 tally rose to 176,993 on Wednesday, with 1,433 new local infections registered during the past 24 hours, according to the country's health ministry.
The death toll rose to 890 as three more deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, said the ministry.
A health worker inoculates a physically challenged man with a dose of the US Johnson and Johnson vaccine against the coronavirus at the Nepal Disabled Association Khagendra New Life Center in Kathmandu on July 19, 2021. (PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP)
Nepal
The authorities in Nepal's Kathmandu Valley on Tuesday decided to extend the ongoing lockdown till Aug. 24, and during the period vehicles would be banned from plying after 8:00 p.m. with the exception of those in emergency services.
The Lalitpur, Kathmandu and Bhaktapur districts in the valley are seeking to reverse some relaxation in the restrictive measures by asking people traveling on private and public vehicles to reach their destinations by 8:00 p.m. from Thursday, as the current round of lockdown expires at midnight Wednesday.
"The main reason behind fixing the deadline for reaching the destinations for people is to discourage them from assembling at restaurants in the nighttime as such behavior is risky," said Dhundi Prasad Niraula, chief district officer of the Lalitpur district.
In the face of resurgent COVID-19 cases, the authorities in the Kathmandu Valley have since last week urged people to reduce mass gatherings and wear a mask.
On Tuesday, Nepal reported 3,194 new infections and 35 more deaths, taking the total cases to 720,680 and the death toll to 10,150, according to the Ministry of Health and Population.
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People wait to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at the Vodafone Events Center, south of Auckland, New Zealand, on July 31, 2021. (ZHAO GANG / XINHUA)
New Zealand
New Zealand on Wednesday designated Indonesia and Fiji as very high-risk countries due to escalating COVID-19 case numbers, and placed limits on travel from them.
Travel to New Zealand from Indonesia and Fiji will be restricted to New Zealand citizens, their partners and children, and parents of dependent children who are New Zealand citizens, COVID-19 Minister Chris Hipkins said.
Other travellers, including New Zealand residents, are required to spend 14 days outside of Indonesia before flying to New Zealand, he said.
Separately, a government-appointed panel said on Wednesday that New Zealand should keep its borders shut until early 2022 and reopen only after the vast majority of its adults have been vaccinated against the coronavirus.
It said the country, which last reported a local case of COVID-19 transmission in February, needs to stick to its strategy of eliminating the virus to avoid straining its health system, with the virus rapidly mutating overseas.
The government is set to announce plans this week for reopening, based on the experts' advice.
"The challenge of dealing with regular importations of the virus through our borders should not be underestimated," the panel said in a report.
"Hence we support the idea that re-opening of the borders in 2022 should start in a carefully planned, phased way…"
The panel recommended New Zealand's vaccination programme should be completed before reopening. So far only 21 percent of the country has been fully vaccinated.
New Zealand reported two cases of COVID-19 in recent returnees in managed isolation facilities and no cases in the community on Wednesday.
Pakistan
Pakistan on Tuesday reported 4,856 new COVID-19 cases, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Wednesday.
The NCOC, a department leading Pakistan's campaign against the pandemic, said that the country's number of overall confirmed cases had risen to 1,080,360.
The pandemic killed 81 people on Tuesday, increasing the overall death toll to 24,085, according to the NCOC.
Singapore
Singapore's Ministry of Health reported 54 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total tally in the country to 65,890.
The new infections included 53 locally transmitted cases. As many as 31 are linked to previous cases and have already been placed on quarantine.
Seven are linked to previous cases and were detected through surveillance, while 15 are currently unlinked.
The Philippines
Three in five hospital beds for COVID-19 patients in the Philippines are already occupied, the Health Department said, urging mild and asymptomatic cases to use quarantine facilities to ensure that critical ones can be admitted.
The government also reimposed the 14-day quarantine rule for fully vaccinated people who are close contacts of COVID-19 patients, after initially shortening the period to seven days.
Separately, vaccination centres across the Philippine capital Manila are trying to speed up inoculation rates, including by staying open 24 hours, to help combat a sharp rise in COVID-19 infections linked to the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.
With just over 10 percent of the country's 110 million people fully vaccinated, millions remain vulnerable to infection amid efforts to fully immunize up to 70 million before the year ends.
The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 12,021 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,688,040.
The death toll climbed to 29,374 after 154 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH added.
People walk along Istiklal Street, the main shopping street in Istanbul on July 27, 2021. (MUCAHID YAPICI / AP)
Turkey
Turkey recorded 26,597 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, close to last week's three-month high, and the number of fatalities hovered close to a two-month peak.
Daily cases have surged from a low of just over 4,000 in early July to over 20,000 for the last two weeks.
That resurgence, coupled with severe wildfires in Turkey's southwestern coastal provinces, has hit hopes for a strong tourism revival this summer after heavy losses caused by pandemic restrictions last year.
Last week the new daily cases hit 26,822, the highest level since the first week of May. The number of COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday was 124.
Two-thirds of Turkish adults have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine, while slightly less than half have received two or more doses. Turkey has given nearly 6 million third doses to health workers and people over 50 years old.