People wearing face masks due to COVID-19 travel on a Setagaya Line tram decorated with "maneki-neko" or beckoning cat statue images in Tokyo on Jan 30, 2022. (PHILIP FONG / AFP)
SUVA / ISTANBUL / SEOUL / WELLINGTON / GAZA / RAMALLAH / TOKYO / CANBERRA – Japan's biggest wave of COVID-19 cases to date is showing signs of peaking though authorities are extending virus curbs into next month to try to bring down the rate of hospitalizations.
Virus curbs in Tokyo and 12 prefectures that had been due to expire on Sunday will be extended until March 6, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday
Top medical adviser Shigeru Omi said on Thursday that health centers would shift towards focusing on care for the elderly and those at risk of developing serious illness.
Japan will on Friday begin a long weekend that have in the past coincided with increases in cases.
Virus curbs in Tokyo and 12 prefectures that had been due to expire on Sunday will be extended until March 6, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday.
A expert panel said that while the rate of infections was slowing, the medical system remained under pressure and hospitalizations may continue to rise.
Tokyo reported 18,287 new infections on Wednesday, down from a record 21,576 on Feb 2 in the first week-on-week decline in almost two months.
Nationwide data show the same flattening trend, while cases in the southern prefecture of Okinawa, where this latest wave first gained momentum, continue to ebb.
Police stand guard as people take part in a rally against COVID-19 coronavirus vaccinations, outside the main gates at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on Jan 22, 2022. (MARTIN
KEEP / AFP)
Australia
Australia reported more than 25,000 new COVID-19 cases and more than 50 deaths on Thursday when the AstraZeneca vaccine was provisionally approved for use as a booster in the country.
Medical regulator the Therapeutic Goods Administration on Wednesday night announced it provisionally approved a booster dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for Australians aged 18 years and older.
However, in its announcement the TGA said that Pfizer and Moderna's mRNA vaccines remain the preferred boosters for Australians irrespective of the primary vaccine a person received.
It said anyone who wishes to receive the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, Vaxzevria, as a booster would first have to consult their doctor.
A Yemeni medic prepares a dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Yemen's third city of Taez on April 21, 2021. (AHMAD AL-BASHA / AFP)
Middle East
CAIRO – Middle Eastern countries have seen a rise in coronavirus infections in the last six weeks because of low vaccination rates, officials at the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office said on Wednesday.
Reported COVID-19 cases rose to a daily average of 110,000 in the past six weeks, while average daily deaths rose to 345 in the last three weeks, WHO regional director Ahmed Al-Mandhari said on Wednesday.
More than 35 percent of the region's population is fully vaccinated. But one quarter of the countries have not yet reached 10 percent vaccination coverage, said Rana Hajjeh, director of program management.
The WHO's Eastern Mediterranean region comprises the Middle East, Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, Djibouti and Afghanistan, among others.
Police pack up a tent at parliament grounds on the third day of demonstrations against COVID-19 restrictions, inspired by a similar demonstration in Canada, in Wellington on Feb 10, 2022. (MARTY MELVILLE / AFP)
New Zealand
New Zealand police on Thursday arrested more than 50 people and began forcefully removing hundreds of protesters camped outside its parliament building for the last three days to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates and tough coronavirus restrictions.
With borders still closed, tens of thousands of expatriate New Zealanders face being cut off from families, while tourism businesses are struggling to stay afloat
A country of five million people, New Zealand has reported just over 18,000 confirmed cases and 53 deaths since the pandemic began. About 94 percent of eligible people are vaccinated, with shots mandatory for some staff in frontline jobs.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Thursday told the protesters to "move on", saying the protests are not a reflection of what the majority in the country feels. As of 14:45 local time, about a thousand protesters remained at the site, defying warnings and efforts by the police to clear them.
"All of us want to actually move on. We are working very hard to put ourselves in the best possible position to do that," Ardern told reporters after visiting a COVID-19 vaccination center in Auckland.
Ardern acknowledged every New Zealander had the right to protest, but said that should not disrupt others' lives. Removing protesters was an operational matter for police, she said.
Despite garnering plaudits for keeping the country virtually virus-free over the last two years, the strict restrictions now in place have become unpopular, with Ardern's approval ratings taking a hit in recent opinion polls.
With borders still closed, tens of thousands of expatriate New Zealanders face being cut off from families, while tourism businesses are struggling to stay afloat.
An employee of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees measures the body temperature of a girl as people arrive to receive the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine at UNRWA's clinic in the Rafah camp for Palestinian refugees in the southern Gaza Strip on March 3, 2021. (SAID KHATIB / AFP)
Palestine
Palestinian authorities have ramped up COVID-19 testing and vaccinations in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and warned that public indifference to their calls for masking and social distancing is hampering efforts to fight the pandemic.
The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry said the total number of active cases of COVID-19 in the two territories stood at 64,000 on Wednesday due to the highly infectious Omicron variant.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila warned that governmental hospitals in the West Bank were at full capacity on Saturday. In the past week alone, the number of people who were seriously ill more than doubled in Gaza and nearly doubled in the West Bank.
Across Gaza and the West Bank, masking is mandatory inside public offices and government employees are required to get vaccinated, officials said.
Palestinian authorities in both the West Bank and Gaza have opened more testing sites, approved rapid tests and are urging people to get vaccinated.
Of the 3.1 million Palestinians living in the West Bank, 60 percent are fully vaccinated, while the rate for Gaza's 2.3 million population stands at 43 percent, according to health officials. The death toll in the West Bank and Gaza from the virus has reached nearly 5,000.
A medical staff member takes a nasal swab from a visitor (center) to test for the Covid-19 coronavirus at a virus testing center in Seoul on Feb 9, 2022. (JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)
South Korea
South Korea launched a self-treatment scheme for patients with mild coronavirus symptoms in order to free up medical resources for more serious cases, as new infections hit a fresh high on Thursday due to the fast spreading Omicron variant.
South Korea has largely been a COVID-19 mitigation success story, thanks to aggressive testing and tracing, social distancing and mask wearing.
But as the highly infectious but less deadly Omicron variant began spreading, the government this month started to shift its strategy away from testing and tracing and towards self-monitoring, diagnosis and at-home treatment.
From Thursday, authorities will only provide care to COVID-19 patients aged 60 and older or with underlying conditions, while others monitor themselves and seek medical help from designated clinics if their conditions worsen.
Medical kits including an oxygen saturation measurement device, a thermometer and a fever remedy – previously available to all patients who treat themselves at home – would now be distributed only to priority groups.
Officials have estimated around 13.5 percent of new cases would be classified as high risk groups.
The government had already scrapped contact tracing and mandatory self isolation reports based on global positioning system technology.
"The previous scheme is no longer realistic in light of our limited resources, and takes massive social and economic costs compared with our medical needs," health ministry spokesman Son Young-rae told a briefing on Wednesday.
"The goal of our new Omicron response system is to minimize serious cases and deaths by focusing on diagnosing and treating high risk groups, and to prevent the saturation and collapse of our medical capacity."
South Korea's daily number of new cases hit another daily record of 54,122 for Wednesday, bringing its total infections to 1,185,361 among its 52 million people, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.
But new deaths remain low at 20, bringing the total of 6,943 deaths.
The daily count has surged more than two-fold in less than a week, and could reach some 170,000 cases later this month with up to 1 million in home treatment, the KDCA has said.
About 96 percent of South Korean adults have been fully vaccinated and almost 65 percent received a booster shot.
A handout photo taken and released by Matangi Tonga on Oct 30, 2021 shows a Tongan nurse preparing a shot of Pfizer vaccine to vaccinate people against COVID-19 inside Queen Salote Memorial Hall in Nuku'alofa. (ELEANOR GEE / AFP / MATANGI TONGA)
Tonga
Tonga confirmed on Thursday the spread of Omicron variant in the South Pacific island nation as 31 new COVID-19 cases were reported on Thursday, bringing the total number of active cases in the country to 64.
According to Tonga's news website Matangi Tonga Online, Tonga's Minister of Health Saia Piukala said at a press conference on Thursday morning that the five tests sent to Australia confirmed that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is spreading in Tonga now.
He also confirmed that 30 new cases were reported in Tonga's main island of Tongatapu while one was discovered in Vava'u, an island group consisting of one large island ('Utu Vava'u) and 40 smaller ones.
The confirmed cases include adults fully vaccinated and children. They are all having mild symptoms.
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Currently, Tongatapu and Vava'u are under a 14-day COVID-19 lockdown, with shopping allowed on Tuesdays and Fridays.
The Health authorities in the island nation on Thursday urged Tongans in the lockdown area to stay at home.
Tonga, an island nation with a population of more than 100,000, has so far vaccinated 98 percent with their first dose and 88 percent with their second dose. Over 2,000 people have had their booster shots.
A woman receives an injection of the Turkovac COVID-19 vaccine developed in Turkey at the City Hospital in Ankara on Jan 4, 2022. (ADAM ALTAN / AFP)
Turkey
The COVID-19 related death toll in Turkey rose to 266 in the last 24 hours, the highest daily level in nearly five months, health ministry data showed on Wednesday, with new cases over that period dipping to 108,563.
In late December, daily cases stood at about 20,000 but have since surged due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The number of new daily cases touched a record level of 111,157 infections last Friday. The death toll reported on Wednesday was the highest since 276 on Sept 14.
Vietnam
Vietnam warned on Thursday that its healthcare system could become overloaded, after seeing a surge in new daily coronavirus infections following its week-long Lunar New Year holiday.
The Southeast Asian country reported nearly 24,000 new cases on Wednesday, compared to about 15,000 per day in the week before the annual holiday, when millions of people travelled to their rural homes and to tourist hotspots.
After being lauded for its measures in containing the virus through mass testing and strict contact-tracing in the first year of the pandemic, Vietnam was hit badly by a wave of infections and deaths from May last year, prompting a scramble to procure vaccines.
At the time, with state hospitals overstretched, the government appealed to private hospitals to treat coronavirus patients.