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)
ISLAMABAD / MANILA / HANOI / SINGAPORE / YANGON / WELLINGTON / NEW DELHI – The Australian government has revealed its plan to continue fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in 2023, focusing support on the country's most vulnerable people.
Health Minister Mark Butler and Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly on Monday released the national COVID-19 health management plan for 2023.
A significant change is that Australians will require a referral from their doctor to receive a free polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for COVID-19 from Jan 1, 2023.
Vaccinations against coronavirus will continue to be entirely subsidized by the government and the availability of oral antiviral treatments will be scaled up for elderly Australians.
"We will continue to protect those most at risk, while ensuring we have the capacity to respond to future waves and variants," Butler said in a media release.
The end of free PCR tests for all came 12 months after testing services were overwhelmed amid a wave of Omicron variant infections.
Butler said with all isolation and testing requirements now scrapped, resources would be better spent focused on the vulnerable in 2023.
Kelly said waves are expected to continue until at least 2025, but future outbreaks were unlikely to be as deadly as those in the past.
Australia reported an average of 15,569 new COVID-19 cases every day over the latest seven-day period.
India
India's health ministry said on Monday that no COVID-19-related deaths have been reported across the country during the past 24 hours.
This is the second time since March 2020 that no deaths due to the pandemic were reported from the South Asian country in the span of 24 hours.
On Monday morning, 159 new cases of COVID-19 were reported during the past 24 hours, the ministry said. The active caseload stands at 3,906, according to data released by the government.
The overall death toll remains at 530,658 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the health ministry.
Malaysia
Malaysia reported 867 new COVID-19 infections, as of midnight Sunday, bringing the national total to 5,010,634, according to the health ministry.
There is one new imported case, with 866 cases being local transmissions, data released on the ministry's website showed.
Another 10 deaths have been reported, pushing the death toll to 36,763.
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A heath worker receives a COVID-19 vaccine at the Ayeyarwaddy COVID treatment center, Jan 27, 2021, in Yangon, Myanmar. (THEIN ZAW / AP)
Myanmar
Myanmar confirmed 39 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the tally to 633,457, according to the Ministry of Health on Sunday.
The ministry said in a statement that the health authorities tested 4,218 people for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, and the daily positivity rate was 0.92 percent.
The death toll from COVID-19 in the country remained unchanged at 19,488 on Sunday as no new deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, the ministry said.
New Zealand
New Zealand recorded 40,098 new community cases of COVID-19 and 35 more deaths from the pandemic over the past week, the country's Ministry of Health said on Monday.
On average, new cases per day reached 5,721 in the last week. The country has seen the number of daily cases going down steadily from over 10,000 cases nationwide in early July.
With the fresh cases, New Zealand has reported 2,019,685 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 2,257 COVID-19-related deaths since the pandemic hit the country in early 2020, the ministry said.
Pakistan
Pakistan recorded nine new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the Ministry of Health said on Monday.
According to data released by the ministry, the overall tally of infected people increased to 1,575,480 across the country after adding the new cases.
A total of 30,635 people died of COVID-19 in Pakistan, with no more deaths recorded during the last 24 hours, according to the ministry's statistics.
Philippines
The Philippines reported 1,134 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 4,049,042.
The Department of Health said the number of active cases dropped to 18,252, while 24 more patients died from COVID-19 complications, taking the death toll to 64,880.
Metro Manila, the capital region with over 13 million people, tallied 480 new cases.
A notice warning people not to gather in groups larger than five persons as part of restrictions to hald the spread of the coronavirus is displayed at Raffles Place financial business district in Singapore on Jan 4, 2022. (ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP)
Singapore
Singapore reported 902 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the total tally to 2,181,048.
A total of 101 cases are currently warded in hospitals, with six of them held in intensive care units, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health.
No new deaths from COVID-19 were reported on Sunday, leaving the total death toll unchanged at 1,707.
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Vietnam
Vietnam recorded 194 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, down 214 from Saturday, according to its ministry of health.
All the new cases were locally transmitted, said the ministry.
The new infections brought the total tally to 11,520,639. The Southeast Asian country reported no new deaths from the pandemic on Sunday, with the total fatalities staying at 43,178.