Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan listens to a question during a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel following their meeting at Huber Villa presidential palace, in Istanbul, Turkey, Oct 16, 2021. (FRANCISCO SECO / AP)
SEOUL / ANKARA / SINGAPORE / PHNOM PENH / MANILA / ISLAMABAD / NEW DELHI – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that he tested positive for the COVID-19.
Erdogan tweeted that he was infected by the Omicron variant of the virus.
The president said that he and his wife were having mild symptoms of the COVID-19, adding that he will continue his work at home.
The number of daily COVID-19 cases in Turkey has nearly doubled since early January, as the Omicron variant cases rapidly increased across the country.
Turkey on Saturday reported 98,715 new COVID-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 12,150,567, said the Health Ministry.
The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 221 to 88,533, while 80,402 more people recovered in the last 24 hours, it reported.
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
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday that the reopening of the country's borders to international tourists may not be far away, adding that the parliament will debate the matter this week.
Australia, which shut its borders in March of 2020, has been going through a staggered reopening in recent months, allowing in only its citizens and residents, skilled migrants, international students and certain seasonal workers.
In January, Morrison said he hoped international borders could fully reopen before Easter.
While the highly transmissible Omicron variant keeps spreading, hospitalizations and deaths have been stabilizing, with News Corp newspapers over the weekend quoting unnamed sources as saying that Australia may reopen its borders within two or three weeks.
"We are looking forward to be able to make that decision to open up our borders and welcome visitors back to Australia again as soon as we safely and possibly can," Morrison said on Sunday. "But I really do not believe that that is far away."
The first 2022 sitting of the Australian parliament is to start on Monday and Morrison said that reopening borders to tourists will be addressed "very early on".
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said in an interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Insiders program on Sunday that the government is "very close" to deciding.
Cambodia
Cambodia's Ministry of Health confirmed 111 COVID-19 Omicron variant cases on Sunday, the second straight day with a triple-digit increase in such cases.
Sixteen of the new infections were imported and 95 were locally transmitted, the MoH said in a statement, adding that the kingdom had reported zero deaths from the COVID-19 for 33 days.
Cambodia detected the first Omicron cases on Dec 14, according to the MoH. The country has so far registered a total of 1,332 Omicron cases, including 544 imported and 788 community cases.
World Health Organization's representative to Cambodia Li Ailan said Omicron is more transmissible than the Delta variant, so it is very likely that the kingdom will soon see a high number of new cases.
India
India has registered 107,474 new cases in the past 24 hours, with the tally reaching 42,188,138 on Sunday, the health ministry's data showed.
The ministry also reported 865 deaths since Saturday morning, bringing the death toll to 501,979.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces the country will move to red traffic light setting as part of new COVID-19 restrictions during a press conference in Wellington on Jan 23, 2022. (MARK MITCHELL / NEW ZEALAND HERALD VIA AP)
New Zealand
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urged New Zealanders on Sunday to unite in their battle against COVID-19, as the pandemic forced the country to celebrate its national Waitangi Day online.
A growing outbreak of the highly transmissible Omicron variant has pushed all commemorations online, prompting Ardern to urge vaccinations.
"We all have a duty to do everything we can to protect our communities with all the tools that science and medicine have given us," Ardern said in a pre-recorded speech.
"Togetherness is something we have shown throughout the last few years. I know it hasn't always been easy … But together we have, and we continue to, overcome."
Health ministry data show 93 percent of those eligible above the age of 12 have been fully vaccinated and 49 percent of eligible adults have received a booster shot, but infections keep rising. On Sunday, there were 208 new community cases, following a record 243 the previous day.
Waitangi Day is named for the region on the North Island where representatives of the British Crown and more than 500 indigenous Maori chiefs signed a founding treaty in 1840.
Maori, who account for about 15 percent of New Zealand's population, were dispossessed of much of their land during British colonization. In years past, many would protest on the Waitangi Day for civil and social rights, criticizing successive governments for not doing enough.
Pakistan
Pakistan on Saturday reported 4,874 new COVID-19 cases and 30 more deaths, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Sunday.
According to the NCOC, 30 people died on Saturday while battling the pandemic, increasing the overall death toll to 29,478.
Philippines
The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 8,361 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday, pushing the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 3,609,568.
The DOH said 312 more people died from COVID-19 complications, bringing the country's death toll to 54,526. The number of active cases dropped to 126,227 as the country's positivity rate also fell to 21.5 percent.
New cases in almost all provinces in the country are declining, Guido David, a professor at the University of the Philippines and OCTA Research fellow, said in a radio interview.
Singapore
Singapore reported 10,390 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing the total tally to 390,071.
Of the new cases, 2,885 cases were detected through PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests and 7,505 through ARTs (antigen rapid tests), according to data released by the Ministry of Health.
Among the PCR cases, 2,734 were local transmissions and 151 were imported cases. Among the ART cases with mild symptoms and assessed to be of low risk, there were 7,474 local transmissions and 31 imported cases, respectively.
A total of 1,068 cases are currently warded in hospitals, with 23 cases in intensive care units.
Two deaths were reported from COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing the total death toll to 868, the ministry said.
Health workers wearing protective gear guide visitors waiting in line to get tests for the coronavirus at a virus testing centre in front of the Seoul City Hall in Seoul on Jan 26, 2022. (JUNNG YEON-JE / AFP)
South Korea
South Korea on Sunday surpassed one million cumulative COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, as health officials reported a daily record of 38,691 new infections driven by an Omicron variant outbreak.
An aggressive strategy of tracking, tracing, masking and quarantining helped South Korea to blunt that initial wave and keep overall cases and deaths low without widespread lockdowns, but the spread of the Omicron variant is driving case numbers to new highs.
Deaths have remained low in the highly vaccinated country, however, with 15 new deaths reported as of midnight Saturday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
Daily cases are nearly five times higher than two weeks ago, when the Omicron variant began to dominate, but serious infections have remained at manageable levels so far, authorities have said.
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Officials on Friday announced they would extend social distancing measures for at least another two weeks, including a 9 pm curfew on businesses and a six-person limit for private gatherings.
Overall, South Korea has reported 1,009,688 COVID-19 cases, with 6,873 deaths.
Nearly 86 percent of the country's 52 million population is fully vaccinated, with more than 54.5% having received booster shots.