People wearing face masks to help protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk on a street lined with bars and restaurants in Tokyo on Jan 19, 2022. (KOJI SASAHARA / AP)
JERUSALEM / KATHMANDU / BANGKOK / TOKYO / BAGHDAD / ANKARA / HO CHI MINH CITY / RAMALLAH / ULAN BATOR / NEW DELHI / VIENTIANE – Japan on Wednesday widened COVID-19 curbs to the capital Tokyo and a dozen regions covering half the population as the Omicron variant of coronavirus drove record new infections.
Already in effect in three regions, the measures, set to run from Friday until Feb 13, were made official by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida after getting the sign-off from an expert panel earlier in the day.
Japan added more than 32,000 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, a tally by national broadcaster NHK showed, exceeding an August high soon after Tokyo hosted the Summer Olympics.
Tokyo set a daily record on Wednesday with 7,377 new infections, as did the western prefecture of Osaka, with 6,101.
The country has recorded a total 1,924,937 cases and 18,436 deaths from the pandemic.
Japan has declared states of emergency four times during the pandemic, and vaccinated about 80 percent of its population of 126 million, although its booster dose program has reached just 1.2 percent.
India
India reported new coronavirus infections at an eight-month high on Wednesday and a government scientist warned it will take weeks before data on hospitalizations and deaths will show how severe the latest wave driven by the Omicron variant will be.
The federal authorities have said Omicron was causing fewer hospitalizations and deaths than the Delta variant, which killed hundreds of thousands last year.
But Tarun Bhatnagar from the ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology in Chennai said the impact of the current run-up in infections will show up with a lag.
"We have to worry about hospitalization and deaths and that will come later," he told Reuters in a phone interview.
"There will always be a lag of two-three weeks."
India reported 282,970 new infections over the last 24 hours, the highest in eight months, bringing the total to 37.9 million, second-highest globally behind the United States.
Deaths crept up to 441 fatalities, including 83 from a previous wave that the southern state of Kerala is recording only now, making the nationally tally one of the highest this year.
Meanwhile, commercial international flights to and from India will remain suspended until Feb. 28 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Indian aviation authorities said on Wednesday.
According to a circular issued by the country's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the restriction will not be applicable for international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by the DGCA.
A man gets a PCR coronavirus test at a private nursing home in Netanya, Israel on Jan 5, 2022. (ARIEL SCHALIT / AP)
Israel
Israel will continue to offer a fourth COVID-19 vaccine shot despite preliminary findings that it is not enough to prevent Omicron infections, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday, predicting contagions stoked by the variant will wane in a week.
With his government scaling back Omicron counter-measures to ease the strain on the economy, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett sought to cast Israel's still-high case numbers primarily as a result of an en-masse testing drive rather than infection rates.
The fastest country to roll out vaccinations a year ago, Israel last month started offering a fourth shot – also known as a second booster – to its most vulnerable and high-risk groups.
A preliminary study published by an Israeli hospital on Monday found that the fourth shot increases antibodies to even higher levels than the third but "probably" not enough to fend off the highly transmissible Omicron.
Health Ministry director-general Nachman Ash described those findings as "unsurprising, to a degree" as Omicron infections had been logged in some fourth-dose recipients.
But "protection from serious morbidity, especially for the elderly population and at-risk population, is still afforded by this vaccine (dose), and therefore I call on people to keep coming to get vaccinated," he told Army Radio.
As elsewhere, Israel has seen COVID-19 cases spiral due to Omicron. But it has logged no deaths from the variant, and Ash said there had been no increase in COVID-19 patients on ECMO machines – a gauge of the most critical cases.
"In another week we will begin seeing a drop in the numbers, but we still have two or three difficult weeks ahead," he said, adding that some Health Ministry computers had been overloaded by the volume of testing data since Sunday, disrupting updates.
ALSO READ: Japan hits new record of over 30,000 daily COVID-19 cases
Laos
Educational authorities are assessing the readiness of schools in the Lao capital Vientiane to resume face-to-face classes in Grade 5 of primary schools and Grades 4 and 7 of secondary schools following months of closure due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Before they can reopen, all schools must show they can comply with 70 percent or more of 10 measures and 40 recommendations laid down by the Ministry of Education and Sports, local daily Vientiane Times reported on Wednesday.
These measures and recommendations have been introduced to ensure that schools will be safe for both students and staff amid the continuing COVID-19 outbreak.
Mongolia
Mongolia recorded 3,088 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, exceeding the 3,000 mark for the first time since Sept. 23, 2021, bringing the national tally to 415,765, the country's health ministry said Wednesday.
The latest confirmed cases were all locally transmitted, and more than half of them were detected in the national capital Ulan Bator, the hardest-hit area by the virus and home to over half of the country's population of 3.4 million.
Meanwhile, no more related deaths were reported in the past day, and the country's COVID-19 death toll remains at 2,016.
Students rest after being inoculated with Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a school in Bhaktapur, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, on Jan 10, 2022. (Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)
Nepal
Nepal recorded 10,258 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, government data showed, the highest number reported in a single day as the government projected the tally could double by the end of the month.
Total infections topped 972,198 and COVID-19-related deaths stood at 11,624. The previous daily record was 9,483 cases in May last year.
Authorities extended an earlier ban on large public gatherings in the hill-ringed Kathmandu valley, home to more than four million people, until Feb 12 from Jan 29 to try to control the spread of the virus.
Nepal’s daily number of infections is likely to double and hospitalization cases could increase greatly to put further strain on the country's poor health infrastructure, officials said.
Palestine
Palestine on Tuesday reported an increase of 933 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, a new high over the past few weeks in its territories, the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry said.
In a press statement, the health ministry said that it recorded four more fatalities in the last 24 hours, adding the death toll from coronavirus in Palestine to 5,031 since March 2020.
Among the latest cases, 756 were recorded in the West Bank and 177 in the Gaza Strip, which has been ruled by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) since 2007.
Philippines
The Philippines on Wednesday confirmed the first domestic deaths caused by the highly infectious Omicron variant of COVID-19.
The health ministry said those who died were elderly patients with existing health issues and had not been vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Philippines reported 22,958 new COVID-19 infections, raising the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 3,293,625.
The ministry said the number of active cases or patients sick of the disease dipped to 270,728 from Tuesday's 284,458. The country's positivity rate slightly rose to 43.5 percent, from 43.4 percent the previous day.
Workers wear face masks and practice social distancing while they wait to be tested for the coronavirus in Bangkok on Jan 6, 2022. (VICHAN POTI / AP)
Thailand
Thailand will lower its COVID-19 alert level and is considering easing more restrictions to boost its economy, its health minister said on Tuesday, in response to a slower infection rate.
Among measures being considered are establishing more "sandbox" areas for tourists, who can skip quarantine if they stay in specified areas for seven days and undergo two COVID-19 tests.
Nightclubs, pubs and bars will remained closed for now, however, Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters, adding the COVID-19 alert level will be lowered to 3, from 4, on the government's 5-level system.
New Sandbox areas could include Chiang Mai, Chonburi, Khon Kaen and Samut Prakan provinces, he said.
The scheme, a calibrated move to rebuild Thailand's decimated tourism sector, currently operates in Phuket, Phang Nga, Krabi and Koh Samui.
Anutin on Monday said he would propose the return of a 'Test and Go' scheme that allows free movement to tourists who pass one COVID-19 test on arrival.
Turkey
Turkey on Tuesday reported 69,658 new COVID-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 10,591,757, according to its health ministry.
The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 157 to 85,077, while 77,612 more people recovered in the last 24 hours.
A man passes walks past a billboard on the coronavirus in Ho Chi Minh City on Dec 4, 2021. (NHAC NGUYEN / AFP)
Vietnam
The first three locally transmitted COVID-19 cases of the Omicron variant in Vietnam have been confirmed in its southern Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam News Agency reported Wednesday.
The three people were all related to another COVID-19 patient who recently entered Vietnam from the United States, according to the HCMC Center for Disease Control.
They had symptoms including sore throat and runny nose before coming to a private clinic for treatment. Their samples, which were sent for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and genome sequencing, were confirmed Tuesday as positive with the new variant, said the disease control center.
The patients are now being quarantined and in stable health conditions, said the report. Competent authorities are identifying their close contacts and taking samples for COVID-19 tests as part of response measures.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health said 70 Omicron variant infections had been detected nationwide, including 30 in the HCMC. However, the patients were all returnees from abroad and have been strictly quarantined upon arrival in Vietnam.