A woman wearing a face mask checks out her mobile phone as she walks across an intersection of the famed Ginza shopping district in Tokyo on June 3, 2022. (HIRO KOMAE / AP)
TOKYO / DHAKA / SINGAPORE / MANILA / HANOI / SYDNEY / KUALA LUMPUR / WELLINGTON / SEOUL / VIENTIANE / NEW DELHI / ISLAMABAD / ULAN BATOR / SUVA – Japan's top government spokesman on Thursday called for the highest vigilance against COVID-19 infections as the nation's capital, Tokyo, reported 31,878 cases of daily infections, surpassing the 30,000 mark for the first time.
The number of serious cases and deaths remains low, but officials have warned they are rising.
"Nationwide, new infections have reached the highest level ever," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a regular news conference.
"We need to keep a close eye on the infection situation going forward, including the issue of access to medical services, with the highest vigilance."
In another development, a Japanese health ministry panel on Wednesday delayed emergency approval for an oral treatment against COVID-19 that has been developed by Shionogi & Co.
Health experts on the panel voted to support a motion that they would await more data from ongoing clinical trials and continue discussions on the drug, dealing another blow to Shionogi's global ambitions for the antiviral pill.
A person wearing a protective mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus stands in front of a public awareness notice for COVID-19 protection in Shinjuku district on July 14, 2022, in Tokyo. (EUGENE HOSHIKO / AP)
Authorities had postponed a decision last month on the drug known as S-217622, which Shionogi hopes will compete with products from US drugmakers Pfizer and Merck & Co that have already been approved in Japan and elsewhere.
The company has signed an agreement to sell about a million doses to the Japanese government, pending the drug's approval.
Chief Executive Isao Teshirogi has said that annual production of the drug could reach 10 million doses. It has received US government support for a global Phase III trial.
Last month a health ministry panel postponed ruling on the drug because of uncertainty over its effectiveness as well as animal studies showing it could pose a risk to pregnancies.
Shionogi this month said it was preparing to seek approval in China for the drug, shown in pre-clinical studies to display high antiviral activity against the Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5.
Some members of the health panel said that while trial data had not proved the effectiveness of the drug, the results were positive enough to grant emergency approval to help to tackle a seventh wave of infections and possibly reduce the incidence of so-called "long COVID" effects in patients.
New infections in Japan exceeded 150,000 on Wednesday, the Nikkei newspaper reported.
Medical staff transport a patient from the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Melbourne on Oct 9, 2021, as Victoria state recorded 1965 new COVID-19 cases, its highest daily infection number since the start of the pandemic, putting more pressure on the state's struggling health system. (WILLIAM WEST / AFP)
Australia
Australia reported one of its highest daily death tolls from the novel coronavirus on Thursday while hospital admissions hovered near record levels, as authorities struggle to get ahead of highly contagious Omicron variants.
Australia is reporting the highest daily numbers since the first Omicron wave earlier this year, with 89 deaths from the coronavirus on Thursday and 90 on Wednesday. Just over 55,600 new cases were recorded on Thursday, the highest since May 18.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said state leaders and federal health officials have not recommended making masks mandatory in indoor venues, despite calls by some doctors to do so.
Australia avoided the high death tolls seen in other countries during the first waves of the pandemic thanks largely to high levels of public compliance with tough social distancing restrictions.
But there is little public appetite for a return to such measures to defeat the latest surge in infections and Albanese has resisted pressure from some health experts to impose mask mandates.
"It's no good having a mandate unless it's enforced," Albanese told ABC Radio.
He said health officials also had to take into account the effects of tough restrictions on mental health.
The latest Omicron wave is pushing the number of people with COVID-19 in Australian hospitals close to the peak hit in January. About 5,350 patients are in hospitals, and several states are battling record admissions.
Since the pandemic began, Australia has reported about 9 million COVID-19 cases and 10,968 deaths.
A Bangladeshi man receives COVID-19 vaccine in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Jan 30, 2022. (MAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU / AP)
Bangladesh
The Bangladeshi government decided on Wednesday to extend the ongoing special campaign to administer the second dose and booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine by another day to July 21.
As part of the government's all-out efforts to rein in the fresh spike of the pandemic, Bangladeshi health authorities earlier held a day-long countrywide mass vaccination campaign on Tuesday with a view to vaccinating 7.5 million people with the second and booster doses.
More than 285 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have so far been administered in the country, and more than half of the administered vaccines were China's Sinopharm.
According to a statement from the government's Management Information System of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), a total of 285,882,959 vaccine doses, including 159,514,745 Chinese vaccine doses, had been administered across Bangladesh as of Tuesday.
Bangladesh has been using COVID-19 vaccines developed by AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Moderna, Pfizer, Sinovac, and Johnson and Johnson.
Shamsul Haque, member secretary of the National COVID-19 Vaccine Management Task Force, said the vaccination efforts will continue as long as there are people eligible for inoculation.
India
India's daily COVID-19 caseload on Thursday breached the 21,000 mark, officials said.
According to federal health ministry data released Thursday morning, 21,566 new cases of COVID-19 were reported during the past 24 hours, taking the total tally to 43,825,185 in the country.
With the reporting of fresh cases, India's active caseload currently stands at 148,881.
The country also logged 45 related deaths during this period, which has pushed the overall death toll to 525,870 since the beginning of the pandemic, the ministry said.
The daily positivity rate has risen to 4.25 percent and the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 4.51 percent, the ministry data showed.
According to the federal health ministry, the cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage in the country has exceeded 2 billion doses on Sunday and until Thursday morning, 2,009,191,969 doses were administered.
The Indian government is presently focusing on promoting booster doses as the uptake for the third dose has been low. The drive to provide free booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to all adults at government centers has begun last week.
A man receives a dose of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Vientiane, Laos, June 17, 2021. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
Laos
The Lao Ministry of Health is advising members of the public to be extra vigilant about complying with COVID-19 prevention measures as a new wave of Omicron takes hold in Thailand and other neighboring countries.
Even though infection rates continue to be low, everyone should closely follow COVID-19 prevention measures, especially by wearing a face mask in crowded places and when talking to strangers, according to a report by the Center of Information and Education for Health under the Lao Ministry of Health on Wednesday.
It is also important to wash hands frequently to prevent infection after touching contaminated objects, as well as staying two meters apart from other people.
Most importantly, everyone should get a COVID-19 booster shot to build herd immunity in the population as a whole, according to the report.
As of Wednesday, 46 new infections were reported in Laos.
A total of 210,638 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded countrywide since the start of the pandemic, resulting in 662 deaths.
Malaysia
Malaysia reported 5,685 new COVID-19 infections as of midnight Wednesday, bringing the national total to 4,635,648, according to the health ministry.
There are two new imported cases, with 5,683 cases being local transmissions, data released on the ministry's website showed.
Eight new deaths have been reported, pushing the death toll to 35,878.
Mongolia
The incidence rate of COVID-19 rose again in Mongolia due to the prevalence of the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, the country's health ministry said Thursday.
The two subvariants have caused around 10 percent of all new cases in Mongolia recently, said the ministry.
In response, the country's Health Minister Sereejav Enkhbold has ordered all relevant health institutions to stockpile necessary medicines and medical supplies, urging the public to wear masks in public places and follow other health guidelines.
Mongolia has reported 323 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 934,357, according to the ministry.
New Zealand
New Zealand recorded 9,953 new community cases of COVID-19 and 32 more deaths from the pandemic, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday.
It said 383 COVID-19 cases have recently traveled overseas.
Currently, 767 COVID-19 patients are being treated in hospitals, including 20 in intensive care units or high dependency units.
Pakistan
Pakistan reported 599 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, the country's ministry of health said on Thursday.
The overall tally of the infected people climbed to 1,548,394 across the country after adding the fresh cases, according to data released by the ministry.
A total of 30,455 people died of COVID-19 in Pakistan, with three deaths over the last 24 hours, according to the ministry's statistics.
A child receives the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5-11 as a performer dressed as superhero character Spider-Man looks on at a gym in San Juan City, suburban Manila on Feb 7, 2022. (TED ALJIBE / AFP)
Philippines
The Philippines reported 2,074 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday as the Southeast Asian country detected more cases of Omicron sub-variants, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 3,739,160.
The Department of Health (DOH) said the number of active cases rose further to 20,678.
DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire told a press briefing that the DOH has detected over 900 additional cases with the Omicron BA.5, BA.4, and BA.2.12.1 sub-variants across the country.
"Most areas in the country show a continuous increase in cases with Metro Manila showing the steepest increase, now almost 900 cases per day," Vergeire said.
The Philippines tallies a daily average of over 2,000 cases. However, Vergeire said that most of the new COVID-19 patients are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.
The COVID-19-related death toll remained unchanged at 60,641 on Wednesday.
Samoa
Samoa reported 60 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases to 15,243.
Samoa's Ministry of Health confirmed that of the 60 new cases, 59 cases were community cases and one was imported case, according to the local newspaper Samoa Observer.
Of the total 15,243 COVID-19 cases so far recorded in the Pacific island country, the number of community cases stands at 15,088 while 155 are imported cases.
As of July 17, the ministry has administered 172,019 rapid antigen tests (RATs) in Samoa, which has a population of more than 200,000.
The ministry has urged Samoans to be vigilant and adhere to public health protocols including wearing a face mask and complying with social distancing rules.
Samoa's COVID-19 Alert remains at Level 1 currently. The COVID-19-related death toll in the island nation remains at 29.
Singapore Airlines stewardesses walk past a giant lollipop candy display at Changi International Airport in Singapore on April 1, 2022, as Singapore reopened its land and air borders to travelers fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. (ROSLOAN RAHMAN / AFP)
Singapore
Singapore reported 10,293 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total tally to 1,626,360.
Of the new cases, 929 cases were detected through PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests and 9,364 through ART (antigen rapid test) tests, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health.
Among the PCR cases, 888 were local transmissions and 41 were imported cases. Among the ART cases with mild symptoms and assessed to be of low risk, there were 9,008 local transmissions and 356 imported cases.
Three new deaths were reported from COVID-19 on Wednesday, taking the death toll to 1,463, the ministry said.
South Korea
South Korea reported 71,170 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight Wednesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 19,009,080, the health authorities said Thursday.
The daily caseload was slightly down from 76,402 in the previous day, but it almost doubled from 39,182 tallied a week earlier, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
For the past week, the daily average number of confirmed cases was 52,560.
The number of infected people who were in a serious condition stood at 107, up 11 from the previous day.
Seventeen more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 24,794. The total fatality rate was 0.13 percent.
A man passes walks past a billboard on the coronavirus in Ho Chi Minh City on Dec 4, 2021. (NHAC NGUYEN / AFP)
Vietnam
Vietnam recorded 1,162 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, up by 65 from Tuesday, according to its Ministry of Health.
The newly reported infections brought the total tally to 10,763,694. The country reported no new deaths from the pandemic on Wednesday, with the total fatalities staying at 43,091.
As of Wednesday, there were a total of 49 severe cases in need of assisted breathing in the Southeast Asian country, according to the ministry