People wait to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in the Seodaemun district of Seoul, South Korea, Jul 14, 2021. (SEONGJOON / BLOOMBERG)
AUSTRALIA/ CAMBODIA/ INDIA/ ISRAEL/ LAOS/ MALAYSIA/ PHILIPPINE/ MYANMAR/ SINGAPORE/ SOUTH KOREA – As many as 97 percent of the residents of Indian capital Delhi have antibodies against COVID-19 because of prior infection or because they’ve been vaccinated, according to a survey conducted in September. It’s the first such study after a second wave of infections in April and May overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums and made India the world’s second-worst affected nation after the US.
India has administered more than a billion shots but only about 34 percent of its adult population is fully inoculated. On Wednesday, the federal Health Ministry said a door-to-door vaccination campaign will start in districts with low levels of inoculation.
Australia
COVID-19 vaccines have arrived at Australia's Casey research station in Antarctica, authorities said on Friday, allowing expeditioners to be inoculated before they journey back home to a country reopening to the world.
Australia has managed to keep its stations on the frozen continent free of the coronavirus, despite its arrival there last December when it became the last of the world's continents to report an outbreak.
Pfizer Inc vaccines for 27 staff at Australia's Casey Station in Antarctica had arrived, Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley said on Friday. Vaccines will also be delivered to its Davis and Mawson research stations.
After being cut off from the rest of the world since March 2020, from Monday millions of Australians living on the country’s east coast will finally be allowed to travel as far as London and New York. Yet visits to the other side of the country are set to stay off limits for months to come.
As biggest cities Sydney and Melbourne exit crippling lockdowns spurred by an outbreak of delta that began in June and broke the nation’s prized COVID Zero status, the hardcore restrictions that helped keep Australia’s COVID death toll below 2,000 are being dismantled too — at least in some parts of the country.
Most vaccinated residents of the two most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria, will be able to fly out of the country for the first time since the government barred Australians from leaving at the onset of the pandemic. And overseas travelers entering those jurisdictions no longer need to quarantine on arrival provided they are vaccinated and return a negative COVID-19 test before their flight.
While Australia was once a steadfastly committed to a COVID Zero strategy of eliminating all infections, in recent weeks Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s federal government and most of the eight states and territories have been announcing plans to unwind some of the world’s strictest domestic and international border restrictions.
Cambodia
Cambodia on Thursday allowed all museums, cinemas and arts performing facilities in capital Phnom Penh to reopen after a long hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts decided to allow all museums, cinemas and arts performing venues in Phnom Penh to reopen from Oct 30, 2021 onwards, and the directors or owners must strictly comply with the standard operating procedure issued by the MCFA and the Ministry of Health," said a MCFA's statement.
Under the SOP, spectators must show a COVID-19 vaccination card, wear a face mask properly and have their body temperatures screened and hands sanitized at the entrance, and to keep social distancing, cinema halls and arts performing venues are permitted to accommodate only 50 percent of the seating capacity.
According to the statement, the move came after most of the population in the Southeast Asian nation had been vaccinated against COVID-19 and the number of new infections had seen a dramatic decline.
The kingdom launched a COVID-19 vaccination drive in February, with China being the main vaccine supplier.
A band plays at the front of a restaurant after lockdown restrictions have lifted in Melbourne, Australia on Oct 22, 2021. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)
Israel
Israel must do more to break down vaccine resistance and implement tougher safeguards as foreign tourists start returning next month, or risk a fifth COVID wave, public health experts are warning.
“What we did last time was open and then we were passive and did almost nothing — no enforcement, no good genetic surveillance — and gradually we lost control,” said Nadav Davidovitch, head of Ben-Gurion University’s School of Public Health and a member of the expert panel advising the Israeli government.
Tourists tentatively are to start returning on Monday, pending final government approval, but guidelines the government has released so far apply only to vaccination and testing requirements.
Kyrgyzstan
Mandatory vaccination has been introduced in Kyrgyzstan for workers in the spheres of culture, leisure and sports, the country's Ministry of Health said on Friday.
The corresponding resolution was adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers, which has approved a list of spheres associated with high risks of contracting infectious diseases where mandatory vaccination is required.
The cabinet said the list initially included jobs related to serving patients with infectious diseases, and jobs in all types of educational institutions.
The list now also includes jobs in museums, exhibition halls, libraries, sports palaces, theaters, cinemas, concert halls, cultural and entertainment institutions, children's playgrounds, children's camps, sports and recreation centers and fitness-clubs.
Earlier, the cabinet required state and municipal employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Kyrgyzstan launched a COVID-19 vaccination campaign in March after the arrival of China-donated Sinopharm vaccines. It is also inoculating its residents with the Sputnik-V and AstraZeneca vaccines. To date, 969,175 people have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines, and 738,903 people have received both shots.
As of Friday, the country has recorded 181,105 cases, with 175,493 recoveries and 2,666 deaths.
Laos
Laos' COVID-19 tally rose to 38,728 on Friday with 447 new cases registered in the past 24 hours, while the death toll reached 61, according to Lao Ministry of Health.
Deputy Director General of the National Center for Laboratory and Epidemiology under the Lao Ministry of Health, Bouaphan Khamphaphongphan, told a press conference in Lao capital Vientiane on Friday that everyone must strictly comply with the government's order on measures of COVID-19 prevention and control, as hundreds of new locally-transmitted infections have been reported in Laos recently.
The National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on Friday reported 15 new imported cases and 432 locally transmitted cases.
Among the community cases, 253 were reported in Lao capital Vientiane, 54 in Luang Prabang, 52 in Bokeo, 23 in Vientiane, 18 in Savannakhet, 10 in Champasak and Saravan, seven in Khammuan, two in Oudomxay, one each in Sekong, Bolikhamxay and Xieng Khuang.
Malaysia
Malaysia said on Friday it would proceed with the procurement of the Pfizer Inc and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children, following a US expert panel's recommendation for the shot to be authorized for those aged 5 to 11.
A panel of advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration voted on Tuesday to recommend the authorization, saying the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks. The agency's decision is still pending.
Malaysia's Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said on Twitter other options, such as the vaccine made by China's Sinovac BioTech, would also be considered to ensure schools can reopen safely.
About 62 percent of teenagers aged between 12 and 17 in the Southeast Asian country are fully vaccinated, government statistics showed on Friday.
Myanmar
Myanmar's Central Committee on Prevention, Control and Treatment for COVID-19 on Thursday announced reopening schools across the country next month.
According to the committee's announcement, all basic education schools including private schools and Buddhist monastic schools will be reopened on Nov 1, excluding those in 46 townships of nine regions and states based on the analysis on the test positivity rates per 100,000 people in the past 14 days.
As part of the anti-pandemic measures, the authorities re-closed all schools across the Asian country since early July.
The Ministry of Health has been administering COVID-19 vaccine doses to middle and high school students aged over 12 years since Oct 12.
Philippines
Metro Manila will remain under alert level 3 until Nov 14 though the number of COVID-19 cases is falling in the capital region, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said on Friday.
In a televised press conference, Roque said the government would allow the gradual increase of passenger capacity in public transport for road-based and rail transportation plying Metro Manila and its adjacent provinces from 70 percent to full capacity starting Nov 4.
This month, the government eased some lockdown rules by reopening more businesses such as dine-in restaurants and cinemas to increase economic activities.
With the number of new cases dropping significantly since the third wave of infections peaked in September, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the capital region is at a moderate risk level, while nine areas still have a seven-day positive growth rate as of Thursday.
She said the region's average daily rate or the number of infected people per 100,000 population is still at 7.4. "The average daily attack rate needs to hit seven or below before we can deescalate to alert level 2."
Metro Manila, home to more than 13 million people, has been the epicenter since the virus emerged in the country in January 2020.
Singapore
Singapore’s F1 pit building, normally used for the high-profile Grand Prix motor races that have been canceled a second year running due to the pandemic, is being converted into a medical facility for coronavirus patients, the Straits Times reported.
The city-state has been grappling with daily case numbers in the thousands and increased deaths as it tries to pivot from a zero-COVID policy. The government is expanding capacity at intensive care units in public hospitals as the number of available beds has declined.
The Pit Building was used for swab tests last year and was identified as a suitable temporary venue for COVID patients because it has ready facilities, Ong Ling Lee, director of sports at the Singapore Tourism Board, told the Straits Times. The halls in the building, which have in the past been used for art fairs and other events, have been partitioned into sections for more than 600 beds, the paper said.
Singapore reported 3,432 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, a day after recording its highest single-day rise in cases which the city-state's healthy ministry described as an "unusual surge."
It also reported 15 new deaths, five more than the previous day. The deceased, aged between 62 and 98 years, had various underlying medical conditions, the ministry said.
Singapore's health ministry said it was closely monitoring the trends for the next few days after the "unusual surge" of 5,324 new infection cases reported on Wednesday.
Intensive care unit usage eased to 72.8 percent, from about 80 percent on Wednesday. Singapore, which has set aside 200 ICU beds to be used by COVID-19 patients, can add 100 more at a short notice, the health ministry has said.
More than 80 percent of Singapore's population has been vaccinated against the virus, with 14 percent receiving booster doses.
South Korea
South Korea said on Friday it will drop all operating-hour curbs on restaurants and cafes and implement its first vaccine passport for high-risk venues such as gyms, saunas and bars, as it tries to "live with COVID-19".
The first phase will go into effect on Monday and last for a month, officials said, with plans calling for all restrictions to be scrapped by February.
The push comes as South Korea grapples with high daily case numbers, though they remain far below many of the worst hit countries, and serious infections and deaths are low.
Last week, South Korea met its goal of vaccinating 70 percent of its 52 million people, paving the way for the planned return to normal. It has now fully vaccinated about 72 percent of the population, and has given at least one dose of a vaccine to more than 79.8 percent.
While never under lockdown, South Korea has been battling the fourth wave of infections since July when the government imposed tight gatherings and social distancing restrictions.
Outdoor sports events are allowed to take up to 50 percent of spectators and up to 100 people can attend musicals or concerts regardless of vaccination status. Inoculated people will be allowed to consume popcorn and soda inside movie theatres.