A health worker (right) walks past people queueing up for coronavirus swab tests outside a gymnasium in Manila on Jan 7, 2022. (STR / AFP)
HANOI / BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN / COLOMBO / SINGAPORE / BEIRUT / CANBERRA / SEOUL / WELLINGTON / JAKARTA / MANILA / PHNOM PENH / VIENTIANE – The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,534 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 3,655,709.
The DOH said 201 more people died from COVID-19 complications, pushing the death toll to 55,977. The number of active cases dipped to 55,449 as the country's positivity rate dropped to 6.1 percent.
The Metro Manila mayors have unanimously agreed to ease further the pandemic alert level in the capital region to 1 on a scale of 5 starting March 1 as COVID-19 cases dip, the Metro Manila Council said.
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority officer-in-charge Don Artes said the 17 mayors will discuss on Thursday the proposed new restrictions with the inter-agency coronavirus task force which will decide whether to implement the lowest pandemic restrictions that allow more businesses in the capital region to reopen.
Metro Manila, home to over 13 million, is under alert level 2 from Feb 1 to Feb 28.
ALSO READ: South Korea: Omicron 75% less likely to kill than Delta strain
This photo shows a view of vials of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, at the Assad Iben El Fourat school in Oued Ellil, outside Tunis on Aug 15, 2021. (HASSENE DRIDI / AP)
Australia
Australian children will be eligible to receive Moderna's mRNA coronavirus vaccine from Thursday after it was approved by regulators.
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) on Wednesday announced it has signed off on the Therapeutic Goods Administration's decision to approve Moderna's Spikevax for children aged six to 11.
It is the second COVID-19 vaccination approved for Australians younger than 12 after Pfizer's, which is currently available to all Australians aged five and older.
Greg Hunt, the Minister for Health, welcomed the announcement, saying Moderna would be available for children from Thursday.
Workers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant at Suri Seri Begawan Raja Pengiran Anak Damit Mosque in an effort to counter the spread of the COVID-19 in Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei on March 17, 2020. (PHOTO / AFP)
Brunei
Brunei reported a record 3,251 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the national tally to 41,049.
As a country of 420,000 people, Brunei saw its daily cases exceeding 3,000 for the first time on Tuesday, five days after the daily number exceeded the 2,000 mark last Thursday.
The newly recorded cases were all local infections, the country's health ministry said.
A young girl disinfects her hands before receiving a shot of the Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine at a Samrong Krom health center outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sept 17, 2021. (HENG SINITH / AP)
Cambodia
Cambodia on Wednesday began inoculating children aged three and four against COVID-19 with China's Sinovac vaccine amid a surge in daily cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
A lot of kids, assisted by their parents or legal guardians, are seen waiting for their first dose at vaccination sites in capital Phnom Penh, as the inoculation drive targets roughly 700,000 children at this age group across the kingdom.
Cambodian health ministry's secretary of state and spokeswoman Or Vandine said each child has to be given two doses of the Sinovac vaccine 28 days apart.
Meanwhile, she urged people to continue caution as the Omicron variant is widely circulating in the country.
China's Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines are most widely used in Cambodia's immunization campaign.
As of Tuesday, the southeast Asian nation had administered at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines to 14.4 million people aged five and older, or 90 percent of the country's 16-million population, the health ministry said.
The kingdom on Wednesday registered 558 new COVID-19 cases, all were confirmed to be the Omicron, with one new death, the ministry said, adding that to date, the country had recorded a total of 128,133 cases, with 121,553 recoveries and 3,023 fatalities.
A worker walks past a mural as he sprays disinfectant amid fears of another wave of the coronavirus outbreak at a low income neighborhood in Jakarta, Indonesia, Feb 5, 2022. (DITA ALANGKARA / AP)
Indonesia
Indonesia is expected to see the peak of Omicron infections in mid-March, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto has said.
"The government continues to monitor the situation and make preparation as the peak of Omicron spread would be seen in the next three weeks," the minister has told a press conference.
Indonesia has so far registered more than 5.2 million COVID-19 cases and over 146,000 deaths.
"Although the number of COVID-19 cases has been increasing, the hospital occupancy rate is still under control," said the minister.
Laos
Laos has confirmed a total of 27 cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, including the first local transmission and 26 imported cases, since the beginning of 2022, the National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control said on Wednesday.
Sisavath Soutthaniraxay, deputy director-general of the Department of Communicable Diseases Control under the Lao Ministry of Health, told reporters that 26 cases of the Omicron variant were detected among arrivals from abroad, while the first local transmission was found in Bolikhamxay province.
A 60-year-old woman tested positive for the virus at a provincial hospital where her results showed the presence of the Omicron strain. She did not have a travel history, and health officials are currently undertaking contact tracing procedures.
People arrive to receive the COVID-19 Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at Lebanon's American University Medical Center in the capital Beirut, on Feb 14, 2021. (ANWAR AMRO / AFP)
Lebanon
Lebanon announced Tuesday that inbound travelers would be exempted from PCR tests if they got their last COVID-19 vaccine shots within six months.
Considering the recent decrease in the daily COVID-19 cases in the country, Health Minister Firas Abiad announced the decision at a press conference, the National News Agency reported.
The minister added that they have enough vaccines to fulfill the goal of raising the vaccination rate from 40 to 60 percent before the summer season began.
On the same day, Lebanon reported 3,978 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, increasing the total number of infections to 1,053,252.
ALSO READ: Australia reopens borders after 2 years as COVID-19 cases surge
New Zealand
New Zealand recorded 3,297 new community cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
More than half of the new community infections were reported in the largest city Auckland. In addition, eight new cases were detected at the New Zealand border.
There are currently 179 COVID-19 patients being treated in New Zealand hospitals, with one of them in the intensive care unit.
A notice warning people not to gather in groups larger than five persons as part of restrictions to hald the spread of the coronavirus is displayed at Raffles Place financial business district in Singapore on Jan 4, 2022. (ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP)
Singapore
Singapore's health ministry reported a record 26,032 COVID-19 infections on Tuesday and said it may take a few weeks before the current transmission wave peaks and subsides.
"While the number of patients needing oxygen supplementation and intensive care unit care is not high, there is a surge in demand for hospital beds, mostly for patients with underlying chronic illnesses to recover," the health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday evening.
It reiterated that people with mild or no symptoms who had tested positive should consider self-recovery at home to reduce the pressure on healthcare workers.
Of the nearly 294,000 cases over the last 28 days, 99.7 percent had mild or no symptoms.
About 91 percent of Singapore's 5.5 million population have been fully vaccinated, with a further 66 percent receiving a booster jab.
Commuters wearing face masks wait for their trains at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea on Feb 23, 2022. (AHN YOUNG-JOON / AP)
South Korea
South Korea's prime minister on Wednesday called on people not to panic about a major increase in coronavirus infections as new daily cases surged past 170,000 for the first time.
Serious cases and deaths are at manageable levels despite record cases caused by the highly infectious Omicron variant, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum told a pandemic response meeting.
"Although our awareness and implementation of anti-COVID rules should not be loosened, there is no reason at all to fear or panic about the numbers of new cases as in the past," he said, according to a transcript.
South Korea reported 171,452 new coronavirus cases for Tuesday, another daily record and a sharp increase from 99,573 a day before, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Wednesday.
More than 86 percent of South Korea's 52 million population have been double vaccinated and nearly 60 percent have received a booster shot.
South Korea has approved Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for use with children aged 5-11, the country's food and drug ministry said on Wednesday.
Kim said social distancing rules will be relaxed after the current wave peaks, which some experts estimate may come in mid-March.
South Korea has reported a total of 2.3 million cases since the pandemic began, with 7,607 deaths.
Sri Lanka Army medic inoculates a woman with a booster shot of the Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination center in Colombo on Feb 1, 2022. (ISHARA S. KODIKARA / AFP)
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka's total COVID-19 death toll surpassed the 16,000 mark after 30 new deaths were reported, the Health Ministry said in an update on Tuesday.
According to official figures, the total death toll from the virus reached 16,024 on Monday evening, while the total number of positive cases reached 638,043 since March 2020.
Health officials said Sri Lanka is presently facing a rise in infections with over 1,000 cases reported daily due to a spread of the Omicron variant.
A man passes walks past a billboard on the coronavirus in Ho Chi Minh City on Dec 4, 2021. (NHAC NGUYEN / AFP)
Vietnam
As part of efforts to resume socio-economic activities, Vietnam has reopened air routes to 20 countries and regions, compared to 28 in the 2019 winter flight schedule before the COVID-19 outbreak, a transport official said Tuesday.
The resumed routes included those to Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States, Vietnam News Agency quoted Tran Bao Ngoc, director of the Transportation Department under the Vietnamese Ministry of Transport, as saying on Tuesday.
Eight destinations to which air routes haven't been resumed consist of Brunei, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Finland, Italy, and Switzerland. There are currently 370 international flights from or to Vietnam per week each way, compared to a high of 4,185 in the 2019 winter flight schedule, the transport official said.
Meanwhile, six local carriers, namely Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, Pacific Airlines, Bamboo Airways, Vietravel Airlines, and Vasco, are operating 56 domestic air routes with 2,570 flights per week each way, down two routes and 217 flights from the pre-pandemic schedule in 2019.
Vietnamese aviation authorities have officially lifted all restrictions on the frequency of international flights since Feb 15, marking the first time after two years the network returned to normal operation.
Vietnam registered a new record of 55,879 daily COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, up 8,999 cases from Monday, according to its Ministry of Health.
The new infections, logged in 62 localities nationwide, included 55,871 domestically transmitted and eight imported.