A man wearing a face mask to protect against COVID-19 walks around Wat Pho temple in Bangkok on Feb 24, 2022. (JACK TAYLOR / AFP)
BANGKOK / RIYADH / JAKARTA / HANOI / YANGON / WELLINGTON / KUALA LUMPUR / NEW DELHI / SYDNEY / SEOUL / SUVA – Thailand on Monday reported 1,801 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest figure in nearly 13 months, as the country is in the midst of fully reopening to international tourists.
With the latest daily infections, Thailand's total caseload has passed 4.48 million since the start of the pandemic. The country recorded 15 new fatalities on Monday, pushing the death toll to 30,349.
To boost its tourism-reliant economy, Thailand has further eased its border control since June 1. The authorities are considering scrapping Thailand Pass, a pre-entry approval system for foreign visitors.
The southeast Asian nation has managed to achieve a significant vaccination rate and reduced levels of severe illness and deaths caused by COVID-19.
As of Sunday, around 87.1 percent of the country's nearly 70 million population had been fully vaccinated, while 41.6 percent had received booster shots.
Staff check a client at a drive-through COVID-19 testing clinic at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia on Jan 8, 2022. (MARK BAKER / AP)
Australia
As new case numbers in Australia's second most populated state, Victoria, remain stubbornly high, Premier Daniel Andrews has called for healthcare workers in the hospital system state-wide to receive a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Victoria's official COVID-19 daily case number for Tuesday stood at 6,071, bringing the active case tally to 39,420. There were also 15 deaths reported in the latest 24-hour period.
Those figures followed Andrews' announcement on Monday that he intends to request the federal government to allow Victorian hospital workers to be offered a fourth jab, with reports of COVID-19 outbreaks having been triggered by staff members having unintentionally brought the virus into their workplaces.
Victoria suffered Australia's most extensive and prolonged COVID-19 outbreaks throughout the past two years.
For that reason, the state's front-line healthcare workers were among the first in the nation to be immunized against the virus with their compulsory third shots also being fast-tracked during the Omicron wave which hit late last year.
Andrews was quoted in local newspaper The Age on Monday as saying those workers' vaccine immunity was now "waning", so "getting them fourth jabs as fast as possible is very important to help keep COVID out of the hospital."
Presently, Victoria's hospital healthcare workers, like the rest of the population, are eligible for three shots with the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ATAGI) only recommending an extra shot for people aged over 65 or those with underlying medical conditions.
Fiji
Fiji's Ministry of Health has reported 60 new cases of COVID-19 and one COVID-19 death since last Thursday, according to Fiji Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday.
Of the 60 new cases, 21 cases were reported in the central part of the nation, 34 cases in the western part and five cases in the northern part.
The COVID-19 death recorded on Saturday was a 45-year-old female, who had multiple pre-existing medical conditions and was not vaccinated. This has brought the total number of COVID-19 deaths in Fiji to 865 since March 2020 when the island nation reported its first confirmed COVID-19 case.
In Fiji, 943 COVID-19-positive patients have died from other serious medical conditions unrelated to COVID-19.
A security guard sanitizes the hands of students as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus at the entrance of the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad on May 8, 2022. (SAM PANTHAKY / AFP)
India
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 43,236,695 on Tuesday with 6,594 new cases registered in the past 24 hours across the South Asian country, showed federal health ministry's latest data.
Besides, six deaths from the pandemic registered across the country since Monday morning took the death toll to 524,777.
The number of daily new cases has been on the rise in India over the past few days, leading to stricter COVID-19 guidelines announced by several authorities. The number of new cases recorded per day had crossed the 8,000-mark in past days.
However, the concerned health authorities have ruled out a new wave of coronavirus infections in the country.
Travelers are processed at the international arrivals hall at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Tuban near Denpasar on Indonesia's resort island of Bali on Feb 16, 2022, after a Singapore Airlines flight arrived following a nearly two-year break due to COVID-19. (SONNY TUMBELAKA / AFP)
Indonesia
The Indonesian government has predicted that peak cases of COVID-19 Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 in the country will take place in July, a month after the first case was detected, based on its experience in dealing with previous waves of transmission, Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin said Monday.
"Supposedly in the second or third week of July we will see the peak of BA.4 and BA.5 cases," Sadikin said at a press conference.
The southeast Asian country has confirmed eight patients with these subvariants, including three imported cases. The other five were local transmissions in Bali and Jakarta.
The government is currently monitoring other patients with these possible subvariants in Jakarta, West Java, Banten, and Bali.
The subvariants have increased COVID-19 cases in some countries, but the hospitalizations and deaths are much lower than the initial subvariant of Omicron, Sadikin added.
Malaysia
Malaysia reported 2,092 new COVID-19 infections as of midnight Monday, bringing the national total to 4,528,390, according to the health ministry.
The ministry reported four more deaths, bringing the death toll to 35,716. No new imported cases were reported.
There are 22,607 active cases, with 24 being held in intensive care and 12 of those in need of assisted breathing.
A woman receives a shot of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine in Yangon, Myanmar, Aug 29, 2021. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
Myanmar
Myanmar on Monday reported nine new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 613,452, according to the Health Ministry.
The health authorities tested 7,372 people for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, and the daily positivity rate was 0.12 percent.
It added that the death toll from COVID-19 in the southeast Asian country remained unchanged at 19,434, with no new deaths reported in the past 24 hours.
New Zealand
New Zealand recorded 6,133 new community cases of COVID-19, the Ministry of Health said on Tuesday.
Among the new community infections, 1,800 were reported in the largest city Auckland, the ministry said.
In addition, 82 new cases of COVID-19 were detected at the New Zealand border.
Samoa
The Ministry of Health in Samoa has reported 128 new COVID-19 community cases, which brought the island nation's total caseload to over 14,300.
Currently, the death toll from COVID-19 in Samoa stands at 27.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia announced on Monday the lifting of precautionary measures against COVID-19 pandemic, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
The decision was based on the follow-up of the epidemiological situation of the coronavirus pandemic, health recommendations, and the effective nationwide vaccination program, the interior ministry was quoted by SPA as saying.
Wearing masks will not be required in closed places, except in the two holy mosques in Mecca and Medina, the ministry said.
Immunization and health verification are no longer required for entering facilities, attending activities, boarding planes, and using public transport, it added.
In addition, citizens who wish to travel abroad only have to wait eight days instead of three months to get the third booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine after receiving the second dose, the ministry noted.
Saudi Arabia has been easing preventive measures against the virus since last year after its success in curbing the COVID-19 spread because of the vaccination program.
South Korea
South Korea recorded 9,778 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight Monday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 18,239,056, the health authorities said Tuesday.
The daily caseload was up from 3,828 the previous day, and in last week had hovered around 10,000, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
Up to 41 of the new infections were imported cases, lifting the total to 33,454.
Passengers wait for transportation outside the arrival hall of Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on March 15, 2022, as Vietnam announced the return of a visa exemption policy for 13 countries in an effort to kickstart its tourism sector. (NHAC NGUYEN / AFP)
Vietnam
Vietnam recorded 617 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, up by 49 from Sunday, according to its Ministry of Health.
Among the new infections, one was imported and the rest were domestically transmitted in 37 provinces and cities.
The Vietnamese capital Hanoi was the pandemic hotspot with 157 new cases recorded on Monday, followed by the northern Bac Ninh province with 87 and the northern Yen Bai province with 41.
The infections brought the total tally to 10,732,429 with 43,083 deaths.
More than 223.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the country, including over 200.8 million shots on people aged 18 and above, said the ministry.