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)
SINGAPORE / TEHRAN / DHAKA / HANOI / SYDNEY / WELLINGTON / KUALA LUMPUR / NEW DELHI / SEOUL / ISLAMABAD / BISHKEK – Health authorities of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) warned on Tuesday that the state is facing a new wave of COVID-19, urging the public to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
"We are at the beginning of the third wave of Omicron which is likely to peak in late July or early August. This increase in community transmission brings with it greatly increased risks for those not up to date with their vaccines," said NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard in a statement.
The state health department recorded 10,504 new COVID-19 cases and 14 deaths in the past 24 hours till 4:00 pm Monday. Compared to the state's COVID-19 figures last week, hospitalizations also grew to 1,782 with an over 200 increase.
Hazzard said the current wave of infections was driven by the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, and figures show 56 percent of COVID-related deaths in the state this year were in people who have had two or fewer doses.
"The best way you can protect yourself from serious illness or worse is to get every vaccination that is available to you," the health minister said.
The warning cited data from Australia's National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, which stressed that "fully vaccinated people could get 65 percent greater protection against hospitalization or death from Omicron than two vaccine doses alone afford."
A Rohingya refugee gets vaccinated against COVID-19 in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on Aug 10, 2021. (SHAFIQUR RAHMAN / AP)
Bangladesh
Bangladesh on Monday recorded 12 new COVID-19 deaths during the past 24 hours, the highest number in the last four months, taking the overall death toll to 29,174.
The country last recorded a death count this high on March 5 this year.
Bangladesh also reported over 2,000 new COVID-19 cases, with the daily test positivity rate jumping to 16.51 percent in the 24 hours till 8:00 am local time Monday.
To date, Bangladesh has recorded 1,980,974 cases, including 2,285 new cases on Monday, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said.
India
India reported 13,086 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total tally to 43,531,650, data released by the country's federal health ministry showed on Tuesday.
Besides, 19 deaths due to the pandemic since Monday morning took the total death toll to 525,242.
The number of active cases in the country rose to 114,475. Last week the number of active cases in the country crossed the 100,000-mark after nearly four months.
A man receives a COVID-19 vaccine at a mobile vaccine clinic bus at the Grand Bazaar of Tehran, Iran on Jan 22, 2022. (VAHID SALEMI / AP)
Iran
Iran's daily COVID-19 cases on Monday surpassed 1,000 for the first time since April 27, according to the Iranian Health Ministry's website.
A total of 1,007 new COVID-19 cases were found over the past 24 hours, 122 of whom were hospitalized.
Over the past few weeks, daily infections in the country hardly exceeded 200, with some days dropping to less than 100.
The total number of identified COVID-19 cases in Iran since the outbreak in late February 2020 has reached 7,240,564, and the total death toll stands at 141,404, said the ministry.
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan has seen rising COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, according to the country's Ministry of Health.
Over the past week, 48 cases have been registered in Kyrgyzstan from June 27 to July 3, the ministry said Monday, adding that nine of the cases were imported from Russia, Turkey, Uzbekistan and the United States.
Reportedly, 43 cases were detected in Bishkek, four in Chui Oblast and one in the city of Osh.
In total, 201,101 COVID-19 cases have been registered in Kyrgyzstan since the pandemic started in the country in March 2019.
Malaysia
Malaysia reported 1,918 new COVID-19 infections as of midnight Monday, bringing the national total to 4,575,809, according to the health ministry.
There are two new imported cases, with 1,916 cases being local transmissions, data released on the ministry's website showed.
Eight new deaths have been reported, pushing the death toll to 35,784.
New Zealand
The Omicron subvariant BA.2.75 has been detected in New Zealand for the first time as the country recorded 9,629 new community cases of COVID-19 and 24 more deaths, the Ministry of Health said on Tuesday.
Analysis of whole genome sequencing has confirmed two cases in New Zealand with BA.2.75. Before testing positive for COVID-19, both cases had recently travelled to India, where this subvariant has been detected, the ministry said in a statement.
"At this stage, there is no evidence that BA.2.75 requires a shift in public health settings already in place to manage other Omicron variants," it said, adding that there is no current evidence that it leads to more severe disease, although assessing the evidence is at a very early stage.
BA.2.75 is a recently identified second generation subvariant of BA.2, the dominant variant circulating in New Zealand at this stage. BA.2.75 has only been recently identified as distinct from BA.2, and evidence on its transmissibility, immune evasiveness and severity is still preliminary and emerging, the statement said.
In addition, 47 new cases of COVID-19 were detected at the border over the past 24 hours.
Pakistan
Pakistan reported 653 new COVID-19 cases during the last 24 hours, bringing the total tally to 1,539,275, the country's ministry of health said on Tuesday.
A total of 30,403 people died from COVID-19 in Pakistan, with no more deaths recorded on Monday, according to the ministry's statistics.
Singapore's President Halimah Yacob delivers a speech during the opening ceremony of the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations at the National Convention Center in Beijing on May 15, 2019. (NICOLAS ASFOURI /AFP)
Singapore
Singaporean President Halimah Yacob posted on Facebook on Monday evening that she was just tested positive for COVID-19 with mild flu-like symptoms.
"Thankfully, I have been vaccinated and boosted," she said. "I hope to recover soon and am sorry to have to miss the events this week."
Also on Monday evening, Singapore's Speaker of Parliament Tan Chuan-Jin also said that he was tested positive for COVID-19.
"All good things must come to an end. My COVID-free days are over," he wrote in his Facebook post.
Local media reported on June 19 that Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat had tested positive for COVID-19 while in Germany.
Singapore reported 5,946 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the total tally to 1,473,180.
Of the new cases, 495 cases were detected through PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests and 5,451 through ART (antigen rapid test) tests, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health.
One death was reported from COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the total death toll to 1,419, the ministry said.
South Korea
South Korea reported 18,147 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight Monday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 18,413,997, the health authorities said Tuesday.
The daily caseload was sharply up from 6,253 in the previous day, marking the highest figure since May 26, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
For the past week, the daily average number of confirmed cases was 10,676.
Two more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 24,576. The total fatality rate was 0.13 percent.
Passengers wait for transportation outside the arrival hall of Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on March 15, 2022, as Vietnam announced the return of a visa exemption policy for 13 countries in an effort to kickstart its tourism sector. (NHAC NGUYEN / AFP)
Vietnam
Vietnam recorded 685 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, up 173 from Sunday, according to the Ministry of Health.
The newly reported infections brought the total tally to 10,749,324 with 43,088 deaths.