Jose Lazaro, a medical assistant at a University of Washington Medicine clinic, prepares a two-shot dose of AstraZeneca's Evusheld, the first set of antibodies grown in a lab to prevent COVID-19, Jan 20, 2022, in Seattle. (TED S. WARREN / AP)
TOKYO / COLOMBO / HANOI / BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN / SINGAPORE / KUWAIT CITY / SYDNEY / SEOUL / WELLINGTON / NEW DELHI / MANILA / JERUSALEM / JAKARTA / HANOI – Israel will start offering AstraZeneca's antibody cocktail Evusheld, which is used to prevent COVID-19, to people with compromised immune systems who did not get a sufficient antibody boost from vaccines.
Evusheld has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and has proven to be 83 percent effective in preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19, the Health Ministry said
Evusheld has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and has proven to be 83 percent effective in preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
It is not a treatment for those already sick or a prevention for those already exposed to the virus, it said.
Evusheld will be made available for people 12 and older who weigh more than 40 kg (88 lb), according to a Health Ministry statement.
It said Evusheld will "be given regardless of past recovery from COVID-19 or receiving previous coronavirus vaccine doses, provided that two weeks have passed since getting the vaccine."
Australia
Nurses and midwives from Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, have staged a 24-hour strike in defiance of a government ban against such industrial action.
Thousands of nurses from more than 150 public hospitals across the state did not turn up for work on Tuesday with many joining a protest rally outside the NSW Parliament House in Sydney.
The nurses are calling for better pay and improved staffing conditions, with their union, the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association (NSWNMA), saying the COVID-19 pandemic had pushed them to "breaking point."
Holmes said union members, who had not held a strike in almost a decade, were upset with the NSW government for not implementing minimum nurse-to-patient ratios, as had been done in the neighboring states of Queensland and Victoria.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, however, denied those ratios had worked well elsewhere and he accused the NSWNMA of playing "old union games."
Perrottet was joined in his criticism by NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard who told local radio station 2GB on Tuesday that the union's demands would "cost a billion dollars, when we already spend 30 percent of the state's budget on health."
The confrontation came after crisis talks between NSW health authorities and NSWNMA representatives collapsed on Monday afternoon.
Brunei
Brunei reported 1,477 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total tally to 23,992 with 102 deaths.
This marked a new record high of daily cases after 1,125 new cases were reported on Saturday in the Southeast Asian country, which has a population of about 420,000.
The newly recorded cases were all local infections, the health ministry said.
India
Local government of India's northeastern state of Assam on Monday ordered to end the mandatory COVID-19 testing for arrivals at airports, railway stations and road border points from Tuesday, officials said.
According to the order, the COVID-19 testing for patients visiting hospitals in the state for emergency purposes will also be discontinued except for symptomatic patients.
According to the order issued by health department of the Assam state government, the number of fully vaccinated people in India has gone up significantly, and various relaxations of COVID-19 restrictions have been allowed by the federal government in view of the declining number of COVID-19 cases.
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 42,692,943 on Tuesday, as 27,409 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
Besides, 347 deaths due to the pandemic since Monday morning took the total death toll to 509,358.
Indonesia
Indonesia reported 57,049 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, a record daily high, according to data from its COVID-19 taskforce.
The Southeast Asian nation has recorded 4.9 million cases overall and more than 145,000 deaths.
People wearing protective masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walk on the street in snow on Feb 10, 2022, in Tokyo. (EUGENE HOSHIKO / AP)
Japan
The number of COVID-19 patients recovering at home in Japan has topped 500,000 for the first time amid the recent surging infections due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant and continuous strain on the health care system across the country, the health ministry said Monday.
The number of people recuperating from COVID-19 at home stood at 543,045 as of last Wednesday, up 100,000 compared to a week earlier, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
Authorities have been asking those with mild symptoms to stay at home for recuperation as high pressure on the medical system fuels concerns that hospitals may run out of beds for COVID-19 patients while Japan's booster shot program is still at an early stage.
The country logged 60,142 new infection cases on Monday, with Tokyo confirming 10,334 new cases.
The western prefecture of Osaka reported 7,997 new cases on Monday, down from 9,008 a week ago.
A boy receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination centre at the Kuwait International Fairground in Kuwait City on Feb 3, 2022. (YASSER AL-ZAYYAT / AFP)
Kuwait
Kuwait's cabinet has lifted many COVID-19 restrictions including a ban on foreign travel, a move that will also apply to those who are not vaccinated, Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid al-Sabah said on Monday.
The unvaccinated will still have to get a PCR test 72 hours before boarding a flight to the Gulf Arab state and quarantine for seven days after arrival, while those who are vaccinated would not be required to do so.
Some of the restrictions lifted from next week would include allowing the unvaccinated to enter shopping malls, as well as inside cinemas, theatres and banquet halls if they present a negative PCR test.
Regarding travel procedures, the government decided to cancel the requirement to obtain a negative PCR test result prior to and upon arrival in Kuwait for fully vaccinated citizens and residents, in addition to the cancellation of the home quarantine applied after arriving in the country, said the government spokesman Tareq Al-Mezrem.
For people with incomplete immunization, the government decided to cancel the PCR test before arriving, while being quarantined for 7 days with the possibility of ending the quarantine before that with a proof of negative PCR test, he said.
New Zealand
New Zealand reported 744 new community cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Among the new community infections, 535 are in the largest city of Auckland, 69 in nearby Waikato, five in the Capital and Coast region, 30 in the Southern region, 43 in Northland, eight in the Bay of Plenty and 10 in the Lakes region, according to the ministry.
Philippines
The Philippine Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,010 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, pushing the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 3,641,940.
The DOH said 52 more people died from COVID-19 complications, bringing the country's death toll to 55,146. The number of active cases dropped to 72,305 as the country's positivity rate also decreased to 10.4 percent.
Singapore
Singapore reported 9,082 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the total tally to 478,577.
Of the new cases, 2,177 cases were detected through PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests and 6,905 through ART (antigen rapid test) tests, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health.
Among the PCR cases, 2,049 were local transmissions and 128 were imported cases. Among the ART cases with mild symptoms and assessed to be of low risk, there were 6,878 local transmissions and 27 imported cases, respectively.
South Korea
South Korea's daily number of COVID-19 cases hit a record high amid the spread of the Omicron variant, the health authorities said Tuesday.
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the country reported 57,177 more cases of COVID-19 for the past 24 hours, raising the total number of infections to 1,462,421.
The daily caseload was up from 54,619 in the previous day, hovering above 50,000 for the sixth consecutive day.
The recent resurgence was driven by infections in the Seoul metropolitan area amid the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, which became a dominant strain here.
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
The Sri Lankan government has decided to grant the on-arrival Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) facility to tourists from India to boost tourist arrivals this year, an official said on Monday.
The official from the Sri Lanka tourism sector told Xinhua that this facility is already available for arrivals from some European countries including Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Poland, and it has now been extended to tourists from India as it was a big source market.
According to official figures, India was the biggest source of tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka with 56,268 arrivals in 2021.
Sri Lanka offered the ETA facility to foreign tourists, but it was temporarily suspended following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
A man passes walks past a billboard on the coronavirus in Ho Chi Minh City on Dec 4, 2021. (NHAC NGUYEN / AFP)
Vietnam
Vietnam has officially removed all COVID-19 restrictions on the frequency of international flights starting Tuesday, marking the first time its aviation network can fully resume after nearly two years of border closure.
In the latest notice published on its website, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) said it has removed restrictions on passenger transport on all international flights, but passengers entering Vietnam will have to follow current regulations on entry and pandemic prevention and control.
The CAAV has been tasked with discussing with foreign aviation authorities to resume regular flights like before the pandemic, Vietnam News Agency reported.
The frequency of flights on the routes will be gradually increased in a roadmap to ensure the principle of safely, flexibly adapting to and effectively controlling COVID-19, creating favorable conditions for traveling activities with strict implementation of guidelines on medical supervision on passengers entering Vietnam, according to the news agency.
On Jan 1, the Vietnamese government allowed the resumption of regular commercial flights to and from a number of international destinations including Bangkok, Phnom Penh, San Francisco and Singapore.
Earlier in March 2020, Vietnam closed its borders and grounded all international flights due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only allowing entry for Vietnamese repatriates, foreign experts and highly-skilled workers on special flights and with certain quarantine requirements.