Cyclists ride past the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in the Marina Bay area of Singapore, Sept 25, 2021. (ORE HUIYING / BLOOMBERG)
SYDNEY / JERUSALEM / ANKARA / TEHRAN / SEOUL /KUALA LUMPUR / NEW DELHI / TOKYO / ULAN BATOR / SINGAPORE / YANGON – Singapore's health ministry reported 3,994 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic, while it recorded seven new deaths from the disease.
A recent spike in infections after the relaxation of some restrictions has prompted Singapore to pause further reopening. In September, it also tightened curbs that limited social gatherings to two people and made work from home a default.
More than 80 percent of Singapore's population has been vaccinated against the virus.
In this file photo taken on Aug 3, 2021,
medical staff wear personal protective equipment (PPE) to care COVID-19 patients at Hokkaido University Hospital in Sapporo.
(YASUYOSHI CHIBA / AFP)
Japan
Japan's lack of a vaccination passport and limited testing capacity is threatening ambitions to reopen the economy at a crucial year-end period when restaurants earn up to a half of their annual revenue and travel agencies are at their busiest.
This means businesses, wary of another pandemic wave through winter, are not rehiring laid-off staff or ordering more supplies until they know more about what the reopening scheme will look like and how long they can stay open. Local authorities have been largely left to fend for themselves, creating a patchwork of rules and compliance schemes.
At stake is how quickly Japan can recapture some of the $44 billion spent by foreign tourists in 2019 and whether the estimated $53 billion in pent-up domestic spending can be unleashed to jump-start the battered economy.
If botched, the reopening could also prove costly for new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who faces an election in under two weeks. His predecessor was ousted after his popularity ratings tanked due to perceptions his government bungled its COVID-19 pandemic response.
Year-end is critical for bars and restaurants in Japan, where companies organize large "forget-the-year" parties and having a meal to round off the year with business associates and friends is an important custom.
Japan was initially criticized for a sluggish vaccination rollout that left it behind most advanced economies and made it vulnerable to a Delta variant outbreak that forced it to hold the Tokyo Olympics without spectators this summer.
Cases have since slowed to a trickle and vaccinations have caught up, enabling the government to gradually begin work on a scheme to reopen that would entail the use of vaccination certificates and COVID-19 tests.
The issue with vaccine passports is that, on top of unresolved privacy concerns, inoculations have been given by local authorities or self defence forces and a unified database does not exist.
The problem with partially basing the reopening on COVID-19 tests is that Japan has not done mass testing – it carried out 9 times fewer tests per capita than the United States during the pandemic, Oxford University data show, and they are not readily available.
The government has said it tests in line with World Health Organization recommendations. New PM Kishida has pledged to increase testing capacity, but similar promises made by his predecessors did not bring tangible improvements.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is seen reflected in the window of a train as commuters board on Oct 11, 2021, as Sydney ended their lockdown against the COVID-19 coronavirus after 106 days. (STEVEN SAPHORE / AFP)
Australia
Australia's COVID-19 cases remained subdued on Tuesday as its largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, gradually move towards normality amid a surge in vaccinations, after being rocked by a third wave of infections from the Delta variant.
The fast-moving Delta strain forced Sydney, Melbourne and the national capital of Canberra to ditch their COVID-zero approach and officials now aim to ease the tough restrictions once double-dose vaccination rates passed 70 percent, 80 percent and 90 percent.
Sydney, Australia's largest city, and Canberra exited a months-long lockdown last week after racing through its inoculation targets while Melbourne is on track to lift its strict stay-home orders later this week.
Authorities in Queensland, which on Monday became the first COVID-free state to outline its reopening plans, urged the state's 5 million residents to get vaccinated ahead of opening its state borders a week before Christmas – when its double-dose vaccination rate is expected to reach 80 percent.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the opening of borders should act as an "incentive" for residents to get inoculated. Queensland has so far only fully vaccinated 57 percent of its population above 16, well below the national average of 68 percent and 81 percent in NSW.
"We've had the luxury of essentially being largely Delta free, so now it is really important for people across Queensland to get vaccinated … Time is of the essence," Palaszczuk told Nine News on Tuesday.
A total of 1,749 new cases were reported in Victoria, the majority in state capital Melbourne, down from 1,903 on Monday. Daily infections in New South Wales, home to Sydney, rose to 273 on Tuesday from 265 a day earlier, but well down from its pandemic high of 1,599 in early September.
More than one-fifth of the new cases reported in NSW over the past week are in children below 10, government data showed.
Despite the recent Delta outbreaks, Australia's coronavirus numbers remain low compared with many other developed countries, with some 147,000 cases and 1,558 deaths.
ALSO READ: Indonesia sees COVID-19 becoming endemic by January
Myanmar
The number of COVID-19 cases in Myanmar has increased to 490,008 on Tuesday after 1,133 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health.
The ministry said 28 new deaths were recorded, bringing the death toll to 18,416 in the country as of Tuesday.
A total of 442,610 patients have been discharged from hospitals and over 4.66 million samples have been tested for COVID-19 so far.
Myanmar detected its first two COVID-19 cases on March 23 last year.
In this file photo taken on Sept 1, 2021, students attend a class at the beginning of the new semester in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. (BYAMBASUREN BYAMBA-OCHIR / AFP)
Mongolia
More than 10 percent of Mongolia's population has been infected with COVID-19, according to the country's health ministry on Tuesday.
Mongolia, with a population of around 3.4 million, registered 1,303 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 340,839, the ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile, 18 more COVID-19 patients died in the past day, pushing the death toll to 1,501, said the ministry.
The resurgence of the virus has continued due to the highly contagious Delta variant, although 65.7 percent of the population has received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
Currently, there are more than 69,700 active COVID-19 cases, and most of them are receiving home-based care due to a shortage of hospital beds and medical staff, according to the ministry.
The Asian country reported its first imported COVID-19 case in March 2020 and confirmed its first locally transmitted case in November.
The country's health authorities have urged the public to avoid mass gatherings, wear masks in public areas and receive a booster shot.
More than 370,500 Mongolians have received a booster shot so far.
The ministry has said that at least 50 percent of the population need a booster.
New Zealand
New Zealand reported 94 new community cases of Covid-19 Tuesday, with 87 in locked-down Auckland and seven in the Waikato region.
“I know the highs and low of cases are particularly hard on people,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “We are not powerless. We do have the ability to help keep cases as low as we can.”
Ardern said the cases aren’t confined to one part of Auckland – they are spread across 124 suburbs – and that the age group with the highest proportion of today’s cases was the 39-and-under category, which is also the least vaccinated demographic.
Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said people aged 12 and over who are severely immuno-compromised will receive a third primary dose of the vaccine made by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech Se, rather than a booster dose.
In this file photo taken on Sept 1, 2021, an Israeli teacher welcomes pupils wearing protective face masks upon their return to the new school year amid a surge of COVID-19 cases in Israel, at Beit Hakerem Israeli elementary school in Jerusalem. (MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP)
Israel
The death toll from the coronavirus in Israel rose by 11 to 8,010 on Monday, the country's Ministry of Health said.
The ministry also reported 1,209 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the tally of infections in the country to 1,317,650.
The number of patients in serious condition decreased from 380 to 357, while total recoveries from the virus climbed to 1,292,104 after 1,943 newly recovered cases were recorded. Active cases decreased to 17,536.
The number of people who have received the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Israel surpassed 6.2 million, or 66 percent of its total population, while over 5.7 million have taken two doses and over 3.8 million have got three jabs, according to the ministry.
ALSO READ: Israel's COVID-19 cases exceed 1.3m
South Korea
South Korea reported 1,073 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Monday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 344,518.
The daily caseload was up from 1,050 in the prior day, hovering above 1,000 for 105 straight days since July 7. The daily average tally for the past week was 1,481.
The recent resurgence was attributable to cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area.
Of the new cases, 393 were Seoul residents. The number of the newly infected people residing in Gyeonggi province and the western port city of Incheon was 296 and 88.
The virus spread also raged in the non-metropolitan region. The number of new infections in the non-capital areas was 271, or 25.9 percent of the total local transmission.
Twenty-five cases were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 14,865.
Thailand
Thailand is speeding up vaccination roll-out as the Southeast Asian country plans to reopen for vaccinated visitors from November to revive the pandemic-battered economy.
On Monday, the country administered nearly 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as it prepares to welcome back fully vaccinated international visitors from the beginning of next month, according to the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).
As of Monday, Thailand has administered more than 66 million doses of vaccines, with about 37 percent of its total population having been fully vaccinated, according to the CCSA.
However, the figures of full vaccination coverage are much higher in key tourist destinations, led by Phuket with 76.7 percent and Bangkok with 69.7 percent, according to the COVID-19 task force.
Thailand aims to inoculate about 70 percent of its nearly 70 million population by the end of this year.
Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha announced last week that the country planned to allow fully vaccinated visitors from "low risk" countries and regions to enter Thailand without quarantine from next month.
The low-risk and quarantine-free list would initially include at least 10 countries and regions, such as Britain, Singapore, Germany, China and the United States, Prayut said during a televised address on Oct 11.
According to the CCSA, full details of the reopening plan will be available within this week.
On Tuesday, Thailand reported 9,122 new COVID-19 cases and 71 additional deaths. Of the new cases, 1,646 were found in Bangkok and its five neighboring provinces, according to the CCSA.
The total number of infections has risen to more than 1.8 million in the country, with fatalities reaching 18,407.
Thailand is beefing up efforts to revive its economy as the tourism sector, the main growth engine that contributed roughly 20 percent of the country's GDP before COVID-19, has been hit hard by the pandemic.
Malaysia
Malaysia reported 5,434 new COVID-19 infections as of midnight Monday, bringing the national total to 2,396,121, according to the health ministry.
Five of the new cases are imported, with 5,429 being local transmissions, data released on the ministry's website showed. Another 72 more deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to 27,993.
Meanwhile, 8,435 patients have been released after recovery, bringing the total number of cured and discharged to 2,278,955.
Of the remaining 89,173 active cases, 679 are being held in intensive care and 347 of those are in need of assisted breathing.
The country reported 207,541 vaccine doses administered on Monday alone and some 77.3 percent of the population have received at least one dose and 70.2 percent are fully vaccinated.
ALSO READ: M'sia to begin interstate travel as 90% adults fully jabbed
Turkey
Turkey on Monday confirmed 29,240 new COVID-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 7,683,517, according to its Health Ministry.
The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 214 to 67,837, while 26,539 more people recovered in the last 24 hours.
A total of 351,165 tests were conducted over the past day, it said.
Turkey started mass COVID-19 vaccination on Jan. 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine.
Iran
Iran's Health Ministry on Monday reported 11,844 new COVID-19 cases, taking the country's total infections to 5,796,659.
The pandemic claimed 181 lives in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll in the country to 124,256, said the update by Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education.
A total of 5,333,304 people have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals across the country , while 4,693 remain in intensive care units, according to the ministry.
By Monday, 48,956,693 Iranians have received their first doses of COVID-19 vaccine, and 25,156,987 of them have taken two jabs.
India
India has delayed committing supplies of vaccine to the COVAX global sharing platform, two sources told Reuters on Tuesday, a day after one of its key backers, the WHO, said the agency could not "cut corners" to approve a domestically developed vaccine.
The world's biggest vaccine maker resumed exports of COVID-19 doses this month for the first time since April. It has sent about 4 million to countries such as neighboring Bangladesh and Iran, but none to COVAX.
On Monday, in the run-up to an Oct 26 meeting on Covaxin, India's first domestically developed COIVD-19 vaccine, the World Health Organization said it could not "cut corners" in the approval decision.
One of the sources said it was "frustrating" that India had yet to confirm any supply to COVAX, despite a promise last month by the health minister to meet the commitment to COVAX and others during the quarter to December.
The sources, who have been briefed on the export talks, declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak on the subject.
The Serum Institute of India, the world's biggest vaccine manufacturer, has contracts to supply hundreds of millions of doses of a licensed version of the AstraZeneca vaccine to COVAX and countries such as Bangladesh.
Its output of the vaccine has more than tripled since April, to reach 220 million doses a month now.
India's health ministry, SII and COVAX co-leads, the WHO and GAVI, did not respond to requests for comment.
Delayed supplies to COVAX could disrupt inoculation drives in many African nations that rely on it for vaccine supplies.
Indian government officials have said they are confident the WHO will soon approve an emergency-use listing for Covaxin, which makes up 11 percent of the 990 million vaccine doses given in India, with the rest mostly from AstraZeneca.
A few weeks ago, Adar Poonawalla, the chief executive of SII, told the Telegraph newspaper that his company would recommence exports to COVAX in October.
"Initially these supplies will be small, but by January 2022, once we have satisfied domestic demands … we will see large volumes go to COVAX," he added.
Before India halted overseas vaccine shipments in April so as to meet domestic demand, it donated or sold more than 66 million COVID-19 doses, including Covaxin.