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)
NEW DELHI / HANOI / SINGAPORE / DHAKA / CANBERRA / SEOUL / TOKYO – Australia's top health authority has flagged a move away from reporting the number of coronavirus deaths in the country every day.
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Paul Kelly told a senate hearing on Wednesday that it was time for Australia to move towards reporting "excess deaths".
Rather than measuring the total number of COVID-19 deaths, as all Australian states and territories have done since the start of the pandemic, excess deaths measure the difference between the number of people expected to die over a period of time and the actual number.
"Although every death from COVID-19 is a sad event for family and friends and as a country, this is an outcome we should acknowledge," Kelly said.
According to Department of Health data, there had been 6,462 total coronavirus deaths and approximately 4.65 million confirmed cases in Australia as of Wednesday. The number of new cases reported in the previous 24 hours was 63,203.
On Thursday morning, Australia reported more than 30,000 new COVID-19 cases and 20 deaths, including 16 in New South Wales (NSW), the nation's most populous state.
Bangladesh
The Bangladeshi government has so far procured nearly 300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Wednesday.
Replying to a tabled question from a lawmaker in the National Parliament, Prime Minister Hasina said, "We've collected a total of 296,484,120 doses of COVID-19 vaccine till April 4."
She also informed the house that so far over 128,070,948 people have been given the first dose of the vaccine, while 114,267,956 people received their second dose in the country.
Besides, the prime minister said that 10,081,193 Bangladesh people received booster shots.
A teacher adjusts a facemask to a student as their school reopened after a gap of nearly one year due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in Srinagar on March 2, 2022. (TAUSEEF MUSTAFA / AFP)
India
The condition of India's first patient said to be infected with the Omicron XE variant of the coronavirus is not serious, the media report quoted a local health official as saying on Wednesday.
The female patient arrived in Mumbai from South Africa on Feb 10, according to the report.
According to the official, 228 out of the 230 samples from Mumbai are of Omicron variant, one is found to be of Kappa variant, and the other an Omicron XE variant.
"The condition of the patients infected with the new strains of the virus was not serious," the official said.
"The XE mutant appears to be 10 percent more transmissible than the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron. So far, BA.2 was deemed to be the most contagious of all the COVID-19 variants," he added.
Japan
Japan plans to ease COVID 19-related border restrictions by lifting its entry ban for foreign nationals from 106 countries including the United States, Britain and France on Friday, the government said.
The foreign ministry said in an update on Wednesday that foreigners from the 106 countries would not be subject to denial of permission to enter Japan from Friday, but foreigners with tourist purposes were still not allowed into the country.
After the planned lifting, Japan will still keep its doors closed to 56 countries, according to another government statement.
The government has said it will raise the daily quota on overseas visitors to Japan to 10,000 this month, from 7,000.
In another development, four members of a group said to be a Japanese version of QAnon, which has frequently protested against COVID-19 vaccinations, were arrested on Thursday for intruding on a clinic where vaccinations were taking place, media reports said.
Four members of "YamatoQ," a version of the US QAnon group, were arrested on charges they intruded into a Tokyo clinic, police were quoted by media as saying.
The group's website says vaccines are untested and "a number" of people have died after receiving them. It also lists anti-vaccine protests around Japan.
Police declined to confirm the reports, but a man saying he was the leader of "YamatoQ" posted a video statement on his YouTube channel in which he said police actions were "completely illegal."
"We were just there at the clinic, asking to be shown the components of the vaccine, which has not been tested," the man said. "Then the police came in and took four people away."
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 4,467 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total tally to 1,123,886.
Of the new cases, 555 cases were detected through PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests and 3,912 through ART (antigen rapid test) tests, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health.
South Korea
South Korea reported 224,820 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight Wednesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 14,778,405, the health authorities said Thursday.
The daily caseload was down from 286,294 the previous day, staying below 300,00 for the third consecutive day, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
Vietnam
Vietnam reported 49,124 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, down 5,871 cases from Tuesday, according to its Ministry of Health.
The new infections, logged in 61 localities nationwide, were all domestically transmitted.