Volunteers pray in front of bodies of people who died due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), during their funeral at a cemetery in Mandalay, Myanmar July 14, 2021. (Stringer / REUTERS)
YANGON / KUALA LUMPUR / SEOUL / SINGAPORE / MANILA / HANOI – Myanmar will extend its COVID-19 preventive measures until Oct 31, according to the Central Committee on Prevention, Control and Treatment for COVID-19 on Friday.
The extension is applied to all COVID-19 restrictions that expired on Sept 30, except the ones that will be eased, the committee said in a statement.
The Southeast Asian country confirmed 364 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total tally to 623,166, official data showed.
The total number of deaths from COVID-19 reached 19,459 on Friday after one more death was reported in the past 24 hours.
Malaysia
Malaysia reported 2,007 new COVID-19 infections as of midnight Friday, bringing the national total to 4,840,879, according to the health ministry.
There are 12 new imported cases, with 1,995 cases being local transmissions, data released by the ministry showed.
Another five deaths have been reported, pushing the death toll to 36,374.
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The country reported 3,315 vaccine doses administered on Friday and 86.1 percent of the population have received at least one dose, 84.2 percent are fully vaccinated and 49.7 percent have received the first booster and 1.5 percent have received the second booster.
Republic of Korea
South Korea reported 26,960 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight Friday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 24,796,014, the health authorities said Saturday.
The daily caseload was down from 28,497 in the previous day and lower than 29,336 tallied a week earlier, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
For the past week, the daily average number of confirmed cases was 28,828.
Among the new cases, 301 were imported from overseas, lifting the total to 67,534.
Singapore
Singapore reported 3,715 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the total tally to 1,907,907.
Of the new cases, 365 cases were detected through PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests and 3,350 through ART (antigen rapid test) tests, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health.
Among the PCR cases, 345 were local transmissions and 20 were imported cases. Among the ART cases with mild symptoms and assessed to be of low risk, there were 3,155 local transmissions and 195 imported cases.
One new death was reported from COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the total death toll to 1,618, the ministry said.
The Philippines
The Philippines reported 2,489 new COVID-19 infections on Friday, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 3,948,040.
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The Department of Health said the number of active cases rose to 29,118, while 31 more patients died from COVID-19 complications, pushing the country's death toll to 62,947.
Vietnam
Vietnam recorded 1,470 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, up 492 from Thursday, according to the Ministry of Health.
All the new cases were locally transmitted, said the ministry.
The newly reported infections brought the total tally to 11,479,356. The country reported no new deaths from the pandemic on Friday, with the total fatalities staying at 43,148.
As of Friday, there were 107 severe cases in need of assisted breathing in the Southeast Asian country, according to the ministry.