People wearing face masks to help protect against the spread of the coronavirus walk on a street in Tokyo, Japan, Aug 23, 2021. (KOJI SASAHARA / AP)
JERUSALEM / BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN / SEOUL / NEW DELHI / JAKARTA / TEHRAN / JERUSALEM / BISHKEK / VIENTIANE / BEIRUT / ULAN BATOR / YANGON / SINGAPORE / MANILA / ISLAMABAD / TOKYO / BANGKOK / GAZA / COLOMBO – The Japanese government and the Tokyo Metropolitan government appealed on Monday to hospitals in the capital to accept more COVID-19 patients as increasing infections has made it increasingly difficult to get access to care.
Fewer than one in 10 coronavirus patients is hospitalized in Tokyo, fuelling public frustration with the government's COVID-19 response and undermining voter support for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
This was the first time the national government had issued such a request based on the infectious diseases control law, Health Minister Norihisa Tamura said
"The Delta variant's strong infectiousness just isn't comparable to previous ones," said Health Minister Norihisa Tamura, as he stood with Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.
"We would like to have further support from the medical community to secure hospital beds for coronavirus patients."
This was the first time the national government had issued such a request based on the infectious diseases control law, Tamura said.
With infections showing no sign of slowing down, the government is considering expanding areas covered by state of emergency measures, the Kyodo news agency said. Emergency measures are now in force in 13 prefectures, including Tokyo.
While infection numbers in Japan have been setting daily records, the number of deaths per day has stayed at less than a quarter of the record 216 fatalities seen on May 18, as more people are vaccinated.
On Sunday, Japan reported 22,302 COVID-19 cases and 24 deaths, according to public broadcaster NHK.
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Australia
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is doubling down on his strategy of looking to abandon COVID-Zero when full vaccination rates reach 70 percent of adults.
Sydney’s delta outbreak shows no signs of slowing, with 818 new cases detected in New South Wales on Monday. Even so, Morrison told reporters in Canberra that the surge was not a reason to delay reopening – and that he wants all states and territories to abandon lockdowns when inoculation thresholds are met.
“We should prepare for it,” Morrison said of reopening. “We should not fear it. We should embrace it. And we should move forward together.”
Brunei
Brunei reported 314 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, another record daily spike, bringing the national tally to 1,769.
According to Brunei's Ministry of Health, the new cases included 308 local infections and six imported cases. While the source of infection of 141 local cases is still under investigation, 141 are related to 14 active clusters already identified and 26 are related to four new clusters confirmed on Sunday.
It marked the fourth consecutive day that daily cases exceeded 100.
DPRK
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has developed its own Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) equipment to conduct coronavirus tests, state media said on Monday, as the country steps up efforts to head off more contagious new strains of the virus.
The isolated country has not confirmed any COVID-19 cases, but has sealed borders, restricted travel and imposed strict prevention measures, seeing the pandemic as a matter of national survival.
As part of the anti-virus efforts, scientists and technicians at the State Academy of Sciences have developed the PCR system that meets global standards for the first time, said the Rodong Sinmun, the ruling Worker's Party's newspaper.
The equipment was introduced as one of recent achievements made under leader Kim Jong-un's push to localise machinery, tools and materials amid international sanctions and border closures that sharply reduced trade.
The DPRK has run PCR tests as an internationally recognized standard COVID-19 diagnostic method, but received outside assistance including from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The official KCNA news agency also said on Monday that the DPRK is stepping up its battle against the virus to ward off the highly transmissible Delta and Lambda variants spreading around the world.
"Plans are under way to normalise disinfection and prevent disorderly movement of people and supplies at offices and workplaces, while education and control is being intensified to ensure all people obey rules including wearing masks at public spaces," KCNA said.
Gaza
Palestinian health officials on Monday announced that the first cases of the Delta variant of COVID-19 were confirmed in the besieged Gaza Strip, which has more than 2 million Palestinians.
The health ministry under the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said in a press statement that it recorded three fatalities and 663 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, with most of the infections involving the Delta variant.
"Over the past days, we have noticed an increase in infections and in the occupancy rate of hospital beds treating COVID-19 patients in the Gaza Strip," said Majdi Dheir, head of the preventive medicine department in Gaza.
Dheir noted that 134,988 people have already received two doses of the vaccine.
Meanwhile, Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman of the Gaza health ministry, said at a news conference that the ministry has decided to completely stop visits to patients inside hospitals, except for most urgent cases.
He also announced that the health ministry will launch a one-month campaign to vaccinate the elderly starting from Wednesday.
India
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 32,449,306 on Monday, as 25,072 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the health ministry's latest data.
This is said to be the lowest single-day spike of new pandemic cases in 160 days, said the health ministry.
Besides, as many as 389 deaths were reported due to the pandemic since Sunday morning, taking the total death toll to 434,756.
India may record an unprecedented 600,000 new infections a day if the country fails to boost the pace of vaccination and avert a third coronavirus wave, according to a new study.
The National Institute of Disaster Management – which falls under the interior ministry – predicts a surge in cases as early as October. Daily infections could reduce to 200,000 if the government executes its 10-million-a-day vaccination plan, the report stated, citing a study by Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Energy University and Nirma University.
The NIDM advises organizing hospital beds and and vaccinating the vulnerable to avert the devastation of the second wave that peaked in May, after killing more than 250,000 residents. Other forecasters have also predicted a new wave in coming weeks, though most see it as weaker than the previous surge.
The study, while acknowledging lack of scientific evidence that a possible third wave may affect kids, suggested vaccinating children with serious underlying health conditions.
Indonesia
Indonesia will from Tuesday start to allow the partial reopening of restaurants, shopping malls and places of worship in some areas, including in the capital Jakarta, President Joko Widodo said on Monday.
Places of worship and restaurants will be allowed to operate at 25 percent capacity while shopping malls will be allowed to operate at 50 percent capacity in those areas, the president said during a virtual press conference.
Since a peak of new infections of COVID-19 in Indonesia on July 15, new cases have fallen 78 percent, he added.
Indonesia's popular holiday island Bali will not have its restrictions eased yet, senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan said at a separate press conference on Monday, but that may happen in the coming weeks.
The health ministry said Monday that the number of COVID-19 cases in the country rose by 9,604 within one day to 3,989,060, while the death toll went up by 842 to 127,214.
On the same day, Indonesia received another batch of China's Sinovac vaccines.
At least 32.04 million people in Indonesia have received two shots of COVID-19 vaccines, while 57.77 million have received their first dose, the ministry said.
“Jakarta has entered the green zone and has reached herd immunity,” deputy Jakarta governor Ahmad Rizia Patria told reporters on Sunday.
The deputy governor was referring to high vaccination rates in the capital, where more than 54 percent of residents are fully vaccinated and most have received one shot.
Mask-clad Iranians shop at the Tajrish Bazaar market in the capital Tehran, on Aug 22, 2021. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Iran
Iran's daily COVID-19 death toll hit a new high on Sunday by registering 684 new cases, taking the country's total death cases to 102,038.
The pandemic has so far infected 4,677,114 people in the country, after 36,419 new cases were registered in the past 24 hours, according to Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education.
Israel
A third dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine has significantly improved protection from infection and serious illness among people aged 60 and older in Israel compared with those who received two shots, findings published by the Health Ministry showed on Sunday.
The data were presented at a meeting of a ministry panel of vaccination experts on Thursday and uploaded to its website on Sunday, though the full details of the study were not released.
The findings were on par with separate statistics reported last week by Israel's Maccabi healthcare provider, one of several organisations administering booster shots to try to curb the Delta coronavirus variant.
Breaking down statistics from Israel's Gertner Institute and KI Institute, ministry officials said that among people aged 60 and over, the protection against infection provided from 10 days after a third dose was four times higher than after two doses.
A third jab for over 60-year-olds offered five to six times greater protection after 10 days with regard to serious illness and hospitalisation.
That age group is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 and in Israel was the first to be inoculated when the vaccine drive began in late December.
In recent weeks, the health ministry has said immunity has diminished over time for seniors and younger people as well. Most vaccinated people who fell severely ill in Israel were over 60 and with underlying health conditions.
Israel started administering third jabs to over 60-year-olds on July 30. On Thursday it dropped the age of eligibility for a booster to 40, and included pregnant women, teachers and health care workers below that age. Third doses are given only to those who received their second shot at least five months ago.
Israel's Ministry of Health reported 5,087 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing the tally of infections in the country to 990,428.
The death toll from the coronavirus rose by 55 to 6,830, while the number of patients in serious condition increased from 645 to 669, the ministry said.
Israeli children undergo COVID-19 antibody testing in the coastal city of Netanya on Aug 22, 2021, before the start of the new school year. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)
Kyrgyzstan
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Kyrgyzstan has reached 174,148 on Monday as 228 new cases were registered in the past 24 hours, the Republican Headquarters for Combating COVID-19 said.
Laos
Southern Laos' Savannakhet province is experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases with more than 100 locally transmitted cases being reported in the past few days, mostly among prisoners.
The prisoners were believed to have caught the virus from an official working at the prison, said Lingthong Sengtavan, the province's deputy governor and head of the provincial taskforce for COVID-19 prevention and control, according to a report by local daily Vientiane Times on Monday.
Provincial authorities have set up a quarantine center for the prisoners, while those who do not have the virus have been moved to other locations.
Lebanon
Lebanon registered on Sunday 1,173 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 592,156, the Health Ministry reported.
Meanwhile, death toll from the virus went up by three cases to 8,011, said the ministry.
Malaysia
Malaysia’s health minister on Monday reported 17,672 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the national tally to 1,572,765.
Another 174 deaths were also reported, taking the death toll to 14,342.
The number of recoveries rose by 19,053 to 1,297,723, accounting for 82.5 percent of all cases.
Of the remaining 260,700 active cases, 1,040 patients were in intensive care including 502 in need of assisted breathing.
Mongolia
Mongolia's COVID-19 cases have increased by 1,566 over the past 24 hours to 195,245, the country's health ministry said Monday.
The disease has claimed 902 lives in total after four more fatalities were reported in the past day, the ministry said in a statement.
Myanmar
Myanmar reported 2,173 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the tally in the country to 373,685 on Sunday, according to a release from the Ministry of Health.
A total of 138 more deaths were reported, bringing the death toll to 14,374 as of Sunday, according to the release.
Oman
Oman will allow anyone holding a COVID-19 vaccine certificate to travel to the country from Sept 1, the civil aviation authority said on Twitter on Monday.
The authority said it had dropped a list of countries from which arrivals were banned due to the pandemic.
Pakistan
Eighty people died of COVID-19 in Pakistan on Sunday, raising the death toll to 25,003 in the country, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Monday.
The country confirmed 3,772 new COVID-19 cases as the positivity rate of the virus exceeded 7 percent in the country, said the NCOC, the department leading the country's campaign against the pandemic.
Pakistan's tally now stands at 1,127,584, the NCOC said.
Meanwhile, the vaccination drive in the country has also picked up pace with 915,856 doses administered over the last 24 hours, the NCOC said.
Some 37,043,561 people have been partially vaccinated and 13,434,605 have been fully inoculated, according to the latest official data.
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Travelers push their luggage on trolleys across a pedestrian crossing to enter the departure hall of Changi International Airport in Singapore on Aug 19, 2021. (ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP)
Singapore
Singapore’s daily tally of locally-transmitted COVID-19 cases rose to the highest since Aug 5, after 59 infections were discovered linked to a dormitory for foreign workers in the north of the island.
A total of 94 new locally-transmitted cases were found as of 12 pm on Monday, the Ministry of Health said in a statement on its website. Singapore had eased some restrictions, mostly for fully vaccinated people, since Aug 10, and had been recording a daily local transmission number around 30 for the past few days.
Under an updated advisory issued on Monday, employers can ask staff who choose not to be vaccinated to foot the bill for regular testing as well as exclude them from COVID-19 related medical benefits, the country’s tripartite partners consisting the government, unions and employers said.
Companies should not fire or threaten termination of an employee’s service on the basis of vaccination status alone, it added. However, “employers may exercise their right to contractually terminate employment if unvaccinated employees do not comply with reasonable vaccination-differentiated workplace measures,” the Ministry of Manpower, National Trades Union Congress and Singapore National Employers Federation said.
Singapore is seeking to add more countries to its vaccinated travel lane program in a signal to the world it’s committed to reopening.
After starting to allow vaccinated visitors from Germany and Brunei from next month, the city-state will “work from there to see which countries and how we can go about it,” Minister of Transport S. Iswaran said in an interview with Bloomberg on Friday.
While Iswaran declined to be drawn on how many countries Singapore is talking to or which ones, he described the move as a “signal to the rest of the world.”
“Essentially we are signaling a path towards reopening,” Iswaran said.
The government will closely monitor the number of imported cases to ensure that the protocols put in place for the vaccinated travel arrangements work, Iswaran said, adding that “the greater the fidelity to the protocols, the greater the chance of success.”
Singapore has fully vaccinated 78 percent of its population, among the best inoculation rates in the world.
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka's medical experts on Monday said the Delta variant of the COVID-19 which is spreading across the country has acquired four mutations due to the high transmission rate but did not have any effect on vaccine efficacy.
Head of the Department of Immunology and Molecular Sciences of the Sri Jayawardenapura University, Professor Neelika Malavige, said there was no need for panic until the implications of the mutations were established.
"One of the Delta mutations (A-222V) is seen in many countries, another (A-1078S) is found in Sri Lanka and Malaysia, while the other two (A-701S and R-24C) are only found in Sri Lanka. These are just mutations in the virus and that does not make these viruses new variants," Malavige was quoted by the local Sunday Times as saying.
"We had identified many other mutations in the previous Alpha variant and in our variant of the Sri Lankan lineage (responsible for the second wave), which were of no significance. Therefore, although some of the Delta variant viruses seen in Sri Lanka might have certain unique mutations, there is no reason to be alarmed," Malavige added.
Malavige said that these mutations were highly unlikely to have any effect on vaccine efficacy and urged people to get vaccinated.
Sri Lanka's health ministry on Monday said that the country recorded its highest single day COVID-19 tally of 4,282 cases on Sunday, bringing the cumulative caseload to 390,000 with 7,366 deaths.
Thailand
Thailand is preparing for life with COVID-19, with preliminary plans being drawn up to relax some restrictions and reopen its borders to vaccinated visitors even as new cases hover around 20,000 a day.
The National Communicable Disease Committee on Monday approved a shift in the country’s strategy to “learning to live with COVID-19,” recognizing the endemic nature of the virus, according to Opas Karnkawinpong, director-general of the Department of Disease Control.
The focus going forward will be on containing infections to a level that doesn’t exceed capacity of Thailand’s public-health system, with key measures being total vaccination coverage for vulnerable groups and faster case-tracing on the assumption that everyone can become infected and transmit the virus, he said.
Among the preliminary proposals are easing some quasi-lockdown rules next month and replication of a tourism-reopening project in October based on a pilot project in Phuket. Other planned measures weren’t announced.
The latest data related to infections, test results, patients in critical care and spread patterns suggested that the current outbreak has peaked, health officials said Monday. That should enable some restrictions to be eased, according to Opas. The country on Monday reported 17,491 new cases, the lowest single-day increase since July 30, compared to more than 20,000 infections daily much of this month. The tally now stands at 1,066,786.
It also reported 242 deaths, taking the cumulative fatalities to 9,562.
As of Aug 22, Thailand has administered more than 27 million COVID-19 shots. Roughly about 8.7 percent of Thailand's nearly 70 million population have been fully vaccinated.
Thailand's tourism hotspot Pattaya may delay its planned reopening to vaccinated travelers on Sept 1, as the city is dealing with insufficient vaccinations among locals and a spike in new infections.
Local media on Monday quoted Apichai Chatchalermkit, deputy governor of digitalization research and development at the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) as saying that the authorities were still committed to reopening the resort city within October, in line with the government's plan to fully reopen the country in near future.
A similar message has also been announced on Aug 21 by Bun-anan Phatthanasin, president of Pattaya Business and Tourism Association, when he indicated that the city needs to get at least 70 percent of its population vaccinated against COVID-19 before reopening to inbound foreign travelers.
The vaccination rate in Chon Buri province, where Pattaya is located, just reached 33 percent of its population, a long way to go before achieving the proclaimed target of 70 percent.
The Philippines
The Philippines health ministry reported a record 18,332 COVID-19 infections on Monday and for the first time acknowledged community transmission of the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus in its capital region.
The region, an urban sprawl containing the capital, Manila, and 16 cities home to more than 13 million people, had been subject to strict lockdown measures which were relaxed for 10 days from Aug 21 to allow more businesses to operate.
"Widespread lockdown or restrictions are no longer effective in the country," health ministry spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire said at a regular news conference on Monday. "It would be more effective if restrictions were loosened a bit and if lockdowns were more targeted".
Large numbers of Delta variant cases for which the source could not be traced had been detected in the capital region and nearby provinces, the health ministry said in a separate statement.
The country's genome center said Monday it had detected an additional 466 Delta variant cases, bringing the number of people confirmed to be carrying the variant to 1,273.
The Philippines has recorded a total of 1.86 million COVID-19 cases, according to the statement, a fifth of which were detected over the last 40 days. Nearly 32,000 people in the Philippines have died with COVID-19, according to official data.
The number of active cases in the country increased to a four-month high of 130,350, according to the statement. Of those recently tested, one in four tested positive, it said.
In another development, the Philippines has approved the emergency use of Russia's Sputnik Light COVID-19 vaccine, the country's vaccine procurement chief said on Monday, making it among the first countries in Asia to approve the single-dose vaccine.
The approval by the Philippines' food and drug agency will allow the country to follow up its order for 10 million doses, Carlito Galvez, a retired general who handles the government's vaccine procurement, told a news conference.
The government expects vaccine manufacturers to increase deliveries in September and October, Galvez said.
The Philippines has so far fully vaccinated 17.26 million people, leaving much of its 110 million population vulnerable to the Delta variant.
Vietnam
Vietnam deployed soldiers on Monday to help enforce a strict COVID-19 lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City, its biggest urban area and current epicenter of its worst coronavirus outbreak to date.
Vietnam implemented movement restrictions in Ho Chi Minh City in early July, but announced its harshest curbs last week as infections have continued to surge. Authorities have said enforcement of recent curbs has not been sufficiently strict.
After containing COVID-19 for much of last year, Vietnam has recorded 358,456 infections and at least 8,666 fatalities. Ho Chi Minh City has recorded over 180,000 infections – half the country's total – and 7,010 deaths, making up about 80 percent of the nation's fatalities, according to the health ministry.
Most of those cases have been recorded in Ho Chi Minh City and its surrounding industrial provinces, where the Delta variant of the virus has sent numbers soaring since late April.
Vietnam received two shipments of 501,600 AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses from Poland and 200,000 Sinopharm doses donation from China on Monday, the government said.
In total, the country has secured over 23 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines but just 1.8 percent of its 98 million people have been fully vaccinated – one of the lowest rates in the region.