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)
JAKARTA / SINGAPORE / HANOI / DHAKA / VIENTIANE / SEOUL / PHNOM PENH – Indonesia has registered more than 6 million cases of COVID-19 since the first case was confirmed in the country in March 2020.
On Monday, the Health Ministry reported that the coronavirus cases across the archipelago rose by 2,798 within the past 24 hours to 6,001,751 with the death toll adding by 104 to 154,774.
To date, more than 5.7 million have recovered from the disease, the ministry said.
As the country is accelerating its national vaccination programs to curb the spread of the virus, more than 195.95 million people have received their first doses of vaccines, while over 157.97 million have taken the second doses.
Aiming to fully vaccinate 208.2 million people in the country, the government has administered over 374.06 million doses, including the third booster jabs.
Bangladesh
Thousands of people have lined up in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka and elsewhere in the country to receive their second COVID-19 vaccine dose.
The Bangladeshi government launched a mega vaccination drive on Monday for administering second dose of the COVID-19 vaccines. The special drive came about a month after a rollout program to administer the first dose.
Bangladeshi Health Minister Zahid Maleque said the mass COVID-19 vaccination drive for administering second dose will continue till March 30.
Cambodia
A plane carrying another batch of China-donated Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine arrived in the capital of Cambodia on Tuesday amid the country's booster shots vaccination drive.
Ministry of Health Secretary of State Yok Sambath and Wu Guoquan, economic and commercial counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia, welcomed the arrival at the Phnom Penh International Airport.
"Today, we received more than 1.5 million doses of Sinovac vaccine, and tomorrow (Wednesday), another batch of nearly 3.5 million doses will arrive in Cambodia through two planes," Sambath told reporters.
The southeast Asian nation has so far received a total of almost 50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from three sources through bilateral procurement, the World Health Organization's COVAX Facility, and donations. Of the total, about 84 percent were bought from or donated by China.
To date, Cambodia has administered one dose of COVID-19 vaccines to 14.8 million people, or 92.5 percent of its 16-million population, the Ministry of Health said.
Laos
The National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control has expressed concern about the possibility of another spike in COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks as people gather to celebrate Pi Mai Lao, the Lao New Year.
In a precautionary move, the government has instructed officials not to arrange events to celebrate the new year in order to prevent people from gathering in large numbers and spreading the virus, the local daily Vientiane Times reported on Tuesday.
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 reported 4,925 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the total tally to 1,076,930.
Of the new cases, 837 cases were detected through PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests and 4,088 through ART (antigen rapid test) tests, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health.
South Korea
South Korea reported 347,554 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight Monday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 12,350,428, the health authorities said Tuesday.
The daily caseload was sharply up from 187,213 in the previous day due to higher virus tests on weekdays, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
Vietnam
Vietnam reported 83,376 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, down 8,540 cases from Sunday, according to its Ministry of Health.
The new infections, logged in 62 localities nationwide, included 83,373 domestically transmitted and three imported.
The Vietnamese capital Hanoi remained the epidemic hotspot with 9,326 new cases on Monday, followed by the northern Bac Giang province with 4,186 and the central Nghe An province with 3,883.
On the same day, health authorities also documented about 180,000 COVID-19 cases detected earlier in Hanoi.
The infections brought the country's total tally to 9,274,849, with 42,358 deaths.