A man rides a bicycle past shophouses in Bentong in Malaysia's Pahang state on Jan 29, 2021. (MOHD RASFAN / AFP)
SEOUL / TEHRAN / HANOI / JERUSALEM – Malaysia recorded 5,725 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in its highest daily spike since the outbreak of the coronavirus in the Asian country, bringing its total tally to 203,933, the Health Ministry said on Friday.
Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that seven of the new cases were imported cases and 5,718 were local transmissions.
An additional 16 deaths from the coronavirus epidemic have been reported, raising the total death toll to 733.
Some 3,423 more patients have been discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recoveries to 157,722 or 77.3 percent of all cases.
Of the 45,478 active cases currently, 301 are being held in intensive care units and 115 of them are in need of assisted breathing.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan's Public Health Ministry reported 69 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the country's total tally to 55,008, including 5,002 active cases.
The COVID-19 pandemic has so far claimed 2,400 lives in Afghanistan since February, up by one in the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement.
According to the ministry, 248,112 tests for the coronavirus have been carried out in Afghanistan as of Friday.
The Philippines
The Philippines extended on Friday partial COVID-19 restrictions in the capital Manila until the end of February in a bid to slow a spike in infections after year-end holidays, officials said, warning the curbs could further delay economic recovery.
The Philippines will lift on Feb 1 a travel ban imposed on more than 30 nations, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said. Foreign nationals are required to have a pre-booked accommodation for at least seven nights in a quarantine hotel or facility and will undergo Covid-19 testing on the sixth day from arrival, he said.
At the same time, Roque said the country would extend through February restrictions on movement in the capital region, which accounts for abo a third of the nation’s economy. Metro Manila and Davao City, the economic hub in southern Philippines, are among the areas placed under general community quarantine, where most businesses can operate in a limited capacity, Roque said. A dozen other cities and provinces will be under the same restrictions, he said.
South Korea
South Korea has delayed until Sunday any easing of social distancing measures because outbreaks involving mission schools are threatening to undermine efforts to keep new infections under control ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays.
The number of cases linked to Christian schools nationwide grew further on Friday, reaching 344 infections in total in seven facilities.
Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said on Friday that the government would not carelessly reduce social distancing rules, citing experts who view the recent surge in cases as a sign of another massive wave of infections.
South Korea reported 469 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Thursday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 77,395.
The daily caseload fell for three straight days, but concerns remained about cluster infections linked to a Christian missionary group in Daejeon, about 160 km south of Seoul, that has a nationwide network.
Indonesia
The COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 13,802 in the past 24 hours to 1,051,795, with the death toll adding by 187 to 29,518, the Health Ministry said on Friday.
According to the ministry, 10,138 more patients were discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recoveries to 852,260.
Airline ground staff wearing protective gear work at the counter at the airport in Manila on August 4, 2020. (TED ALJIBE / AFP)
Bangladesh
Bangladesh reported 454 new COVID-19 cases and seven more deaths on Friday, making the tally at 534,407 and death toll at 8,094, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said.
The official data showed that 12,075 samples were tested in the last 24 hours across the country.
Its total number of recovered patients stood at 478,960 including 414 new recoveries on Friday, said the DGHS.
According to the official data, the COVID-19 fatality rate in Bangladesh is 1.51 percent and the recovery rate at 89.62 percent.
Maldives
The Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA) has approved the Covishield vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India for use, local media reported here Friday.
The MFDA said in a statement that the Covishield vaccine based on research by AstraZeneca and Oxford University was approved for "restricted use in emergency situation."
The MFDA said that the COVID-19 vaccine must not be administered to individuals below the age of 18 and to pregnant women. Individuals taking shots will be monitored for side effects, the MFDA said.
The Maldives received 100,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine from India on Jan. 20.
Thailand
Thailand loosened restrictions across much of the country to allow businesses and schools to resume operations as the biggest coronavirus wave to hit the nation eased. The number of provinces categorized as high-risk areas will drop to five from 28.
Most businesses, including restaurants, will be allowed to resume near-normal operations, while some establishments, such as gambling venues, will remain closed. Bangkok and its three surrounding provinces are still considered high-risk zones, although more curbs can be eased by local authorities. Almost 13,000 of the nation’s 17,023 Covid cases were reported since Dec 15.
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Vietnam
Vietnam recorded 54 new cases of COVID-19 infection between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. local time Friday, with one imported and 53 locally transmitted, according to its Ministry of Health.
The new cases brought the total confirmed cases in the country to 1,705 with 35 deaths as of 6 p.m. local time on Friday.
The imported case is a 31-year-old Vietnamese man who recently entered the country from abroad and was quarantined upon arrival.
The domestically transmitted cases were all recorded in northern regions, including 48 in Hai Duong province, three in Quang Ninh province, and one each in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi and Bac Ninh province, said the ministry.
All the new infections in the community are related to the recent outbreaks in Hai Duong and Quang Ninh, where new locally transmitted cases were recorded after Vietnam had gone through nearly two months free of community infections.
As many as 1,448 patients have been given the all-clear, the ministry said, adding that over 21,300 people are being quarantined and monitored.
Iran
Iran's Health Ministry reported 6,573 daily COVID-19 cases on Friday, raising the total nationwide infections to 1,405,414.
The pandemic has so far claimed 57,807 lives in Iran, up by 71 in the past 24 hours, said Sima Sadat Lari, the spokeswoman for Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, during her daily briefing.
Of the newly infected, 650 were hospitalized, said Lari.
A total of 1,196,374 people have recovered from the disease and been discharged from hospitals, while 3,990 remain in intensive care units, she added.
Israel
With more than 30 percent of its population vaccinated, Israel leads the fight against COVID-19. Yet the emergence of more infectious variants is overwhelming its hospitals, showing the long road ahead for the rest of the world.
After inoculating 82 percent of Israelis aged 60 and more, going into a nearly month-long lockdown and shutting down the national airport this week, Israel is indicating the end of the tunnel may be further away. That dents hopes for a rapid vaccine-driven global recovery after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge at Davos to make Israel a test case for how quickly COVID-19 shots can help reopen economies.
Israel's Ministry of Health reported on Thursday 317 cases of COVID-19 infection despite receiving the vaccine.
The number of people vaccinated against the COVID-19 in Israel has surpassed 2.84 million, or 30.5 percent of its total population, since the vaccination campaign began on Dec. 20, 2020, the ministry said.
The ministry reported 4,116 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the tally of COVID-19 infections in the country to 624,814.
The death toll from the COVID-19 in Israel reached 4,612 after 38 new fatalities were added, while the number of patients in serious condition increased from 1,160 to 1,178, out of 1,779 hospitalized patients.
The total recoveries rose to 545,381, with 4,042 newly recovered cases, while the active cases increased to 74,821.
The United Arab Emirates
Britain is banning direct passenger flights to and from the United Arab Emirates from Friday, shutting down the world’s busiest international airline route from Dubai to London.
Britain said it was adding the United Arab Emirates, Burundi and Rwanda to its coronavirus travel ban list because of worries over the spread of a more contagious and potentially vaccine-resistant COVID-19 variant first identified in South Africa.
“This means people who have been in or transited through these countries will be denied entry, except British, Irish and third country nationals with residence rights who must self-isolate for ten days at home,” UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps said on Twitter on Thursday.
Emirates and Etihad Airways said on their websites they would suspend all UK passenger flights from 1300 GMT on Friday when the ban takes effect.
Dubai airport, in a statement, advised passengers booked on flights due to arrive in the UK after the ban comes into effect to not go to the airport and instead contact their airline.
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Turkey
Turkey on Friday received the remaining part of the second shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by the Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac.
A Turkish Airlines plane landed at Istanbul Airport early in the morning, carrying 3.5 million vaccines, the state-run Anadolu agency reported.
Turkey on Thursday reported 7,279 new COVID-19 cases, including 670 symptomatic patients, as its total confirmed cases reached 2,457,118.
The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 129 to 25,605, while the total recoveries climbed to 2,340,216 after 8,902 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours, according to the Turkish Health Ministry.
The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients in Turkey stood at 4.7 percent, and the number of seriously ill patients was 1,751, said the ministry.
Lebanon
Lebanon registered on Thursday 3,497 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number in the country to 293,157, the Health Ministry said.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the virus went up by 68 to 2,621, it added.
Earlier in the day, three aircraft from Egypt and one from Kuwait arrived in Lebanon, carrying medical aid to support the Lebanese in their fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
Lebanon has been suffering lack of sufficient hospital beds for COVID-19 patients and needed medical equipment such as ventilators.
Iraq
The Iraqi Health Ministry reported on Thursday 943 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total nationwide number of cases to 617,202.
The ministry also reported six new deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 13,024.
It said that 1,933 cases recovered during the day, bringing the total recoveries to 588,260.
A total of 5,520,056 tests have been carried out across the country since the outbreak of the disease in February 2020, with 35,950 done during the day, according to the statement.
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Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka's health authorities will begin to vaccinate 250,000 frontline health workers after a donation of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in the island country on Thursday, the President's Media Division said in a statement.
The statement said that upon arrival at Sri Lanka's Bandaranaike International Airport, the 500,000 Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines donated by India were handed over to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa by High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay.
The statement said 250,000 frontline workers will receive the jabs in a vaccination program which will commence at six main hospitals in the Western Province on Friday.
This will include over 150,000 health workers, and 100,000 members of military, police and security forces who are at the frontline of COVID prevention operations.
Qatar
The Qatari health ministry on Thursday announced 347 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 150,280, the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.
Meanwhile, 163 more recovered from the virus, bringing the overall recoveries to 145,414, while the fatalities remained 248 for the 11th day running, according to a ministry statement quoted by QNA.
A total of 1,374,442 persons in Qatar have taken lab tests for COVID-19 so far.
Singapore
Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 34 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 59,425.
All of the new cases are imported cases.
On Thursday, 44 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 59,148 have fully recovered from the infection, the ministry said.
Mongolia
Mongolia reported 18 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking its nationwide tally to 1,710, the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Friday.
Meanwhile, 59 more patients have recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries to 1,303, according to the center.
India
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 10,720,048 on Friday as 18,855 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, said the latest data from the federal health ministry.
According to the official data, the death toll mounted to 154,010 as 163 COVID-19 patients died since Thursday morning.
There are still 171,686 active cases in the country, while 10,394,352 people have been discharged so far from hospitals after medical treatment.
Jan 16 was a crucial day in India's fight against the pandemic as the nationwide vaccination drive was kicked off during the day. So far more than 2.8 million people, mainly health workers, have been vaccinated across the country.