A sign outside a school informing people about its closure in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak is pictured in Wellington on April 20, 2020.
(MARTY MELVILLE / AFP)
BAGHDAD / SEOUL / DUBAI – New Zealand health authorities said on Saturday they were investigating a new community coronavirus infection, the fourth in two weeks among people who completed mandatory isolation at an Auckland quarantine facility for returned overseas travellers.
The new case was diagnosed in a person self-isolating at home in Hamilton, a city in the North Island of New Zealand, who was released from a two-week hotel quarantine on Jan. 30 after testing negative twice for the virus.
“We consider the public health risk to be low and people in and around Hamilton should not be alarmed,” Director of Public Health Caroline McElnay said.
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Cambodia
Cambodia reported two new imported COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of infections in the kingdom to 472, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said in a statement.
The new cases were detected on a 50-year-old Cambodian woman returning from Switzerland on Feb. 4 and a 31-year-old Indonesian man coming from Indonesia on Jan. 23, the statement said.
India
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 10,814,304 on Saturday as 11,713 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, said the latest data from the federal health ministry.
According to the official data, the death toll mounted to 154,918 as 95 COVID-19 patients died since Friday morning.
There are still 148,590 active cases in the country, while 10,510,796 people have been discharged so far from hospitals after medical treatment.
Jan. 16 was a crucial day in India's fight against the pandemic when the nationwide vaccination drive was kicked off. So far nearly 5.3 million people, mainly health workers, have been vaccinated across the country.
Indonesia
China is ready to deepen cooperation with Indonesia on COVID-19 vaccines and help with its domestic anti-epidemic fight, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday.
Wang made the remarks in a phone conversation with Indonesia's Coordinator for Cooperation with China and Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.
Both President Joko Widodo and Luhut have received the shot of the COVID-19 vaccine made by China, which has demonstrated their trust in China, Wang stressed.
Iran
Iranian health authorities announced on Friday 7,061 new COVID-19 cases, raising the country's overall count to 1,452,380 infections so far.
Of the newly infected, 675 had to be hospitalized, said the spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education Sima Sadat Lari at her daily briefing, according to the ministry's official website.
And 80 new deaths from the coronavirus were registered between Thursday and Friday, raising the death toll to 58,336, she added.
So far, 1,241,320 COVID-19 patients have recovered or been released from Iranian hospitals, but there are currently 3,819 others in intensive care units.
Iraq
The Iraqi Ministry of Health warned on Friday that the citizens' continued non-compliance with the health protective measures would "lead to a loss of control" over the COVID-19 pandemic, as the ministry reported 1,534 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily infections in 2021.
In a statement, the ministry said a package of protective measures might be applied in the coming days to break the chains of COVID-19 transmission and stop the increasing infections in the recent days.
"We renew our call to all citizens, governmental, and private institutions to adhere to the protective measures and the rules of wearing masks, physical distancing, and hands disinfection," it added.
A separate statement by the ministry reported 1,534 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily infections since the beginning of 2021, raising the total number nationwide to 625,756.
The new cases included 549 in the capital Baghdad, 268 in Najaf, 132 in Karbala, and Dhi Qar 116, according to the statement.
The ministry also reported 12 new deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 13,103, and 1,188 more recoveries, bringing the total recoveries to 598,9147.
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An elderly woman walks past a poster depicting the coronavirus as a bomb to warn against the coronavirus at the City Hall in Seoul on Dec 28, 2020. (JUNG YEON-JE / AFP)
Israel
Israel's Ministry of Health reported 6,403 new COVID-19 cases, raising the tally in the country to 680,856.
The death toll from the COVID-19 in Israel reached 5,020 after 27 new fatalities were added, while the total recoveries rose to 591,052, with 1,344 newly recovered cases.
The number of people vaccinated against the COVID-19 in Israel has surpassed 3.39 million, or 36.5 percent of the total population, since the vaccination campaign began on Dec. 20, 2020.
Earlier on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces said the number of active coronavirus cases among Israeli soldiers reached 3,160, the highest morbidity figure in the Israeli army since the pandemic broke out.
Kuwait
Kuwait's COVID-19 cases increased by 940 to 169,190, while the death toll rose by two to 964.
The Kuwaiti Health Ministry also announced the recovery of 456 more patients, taking the total recoveries to 160,554.
Lebanon
Lebanon announced Friday that it will extend the ongoing total lockdown for another two weeks.
Caretaker Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab said that Lebanon will extend the ongoing total lockdown for two additional weeks starting from Feb. 8 amid the increasing deaths from COVID-19, the National News Agency reported.
However, the COVID-19 ministerial committee will allow banks, supermarkets and a few factories to operate under specific restrictions.
"We will continue to take strict measures to avoid high numbers of infections and deaths from the virus," Diab said during a meeting of the committee.
Lebanon registered 98 deaths from COVID-19, raising the death toll to 3,495, while the number of total infections went up by 3,071 to 315,340, according to its health ministry.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has provided 20 intensive care unit beds and 122 hospital beds to hospitals in Lebanon to help alleviate the strain on the Lebanese healthcare system amid the COVID-19.
Mongolia
Mongolia registered 61 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the highest number of daily infections reported since the pandemic started in the country, raising the total to 1,989, authorities said Saturday.
The latest cases were locally transmitted or detected in the country's capital Ulan Bator, which is hardest hit by the outbreak, the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases said in a statement.
Nepal
China attaches great importance to Nepal's urgent need of COVID-19 vaccines and has decided to provide the first batch of vaccine aid for Nepal, said Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday.
Wang made the remarks during a phone conversation with Nepali Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Wang said, China and Nepal have helped each other, strived to work together to defeat the virus, and carried out sound cooperation in the anti-virus fight.
Qatar
The Qatari health ministry on Friday announced 398 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 153,296.
Meanwhile, 153 more people recovered from the virus, bringing the overall recoveries to 146,627, while one death was reported, pushing the tally up to 250, according to a ministry statement.
South Korea
South Korea on Saturday eased curfews on businesses outside the capital Seoul, letting them stay open an hour later, amid a public backlash over tight curbs to contain COVID-19.
After using aggressive testing and tracing to blunt several earlier waves of the coronavirus without drastic lockdowns, the authorities have imposed increasingly rigid social distancing rules as they fight the latest wave of the epidemic.
The restraints have pushed small business owners and self-employed people to the limits of what they can endure, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told an intra-agency meeting on Saturday.
So businesses outside the capital will now be able to stay open until 10 pm, but “the 9 pm operations restriction remains as is in the metropolitan Seoul area, where more than 70 percent of total infections are concentrated and still faces the risk of virus transmission,” Chung said.
South Korea reported 12 more cases of COVID-19 variants, bringing the total number of such cases to 51, the health authorities said on Saturday.
The newly confirmed cases included 10 from Britain and two from South Africa, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
Thailand
Thailand on Saturday confirmed 490 new COVID-19 cases, bringing its total caseload to 23,134 with no new death, according to Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).
Of the new cases, 479 were domestic infections while 11 others referred to imported cases, said CCSA assistant spokeswoman Panprapa Yongtrakul.
Some 410 of the domestic cases were detected via active testing among foreign migrants and Thai nationals at factories and communities in Samut Sakhon province, according to Panprapa.
The Philippines
The Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines reported on Saturday 1,941 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 535,521.
The death toll climbed to 11,110 after 52 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said. It added that 234 more patients recovered, raising the total number of recoveries to 488,465.
Turkey
Turkey confirmed 7,901 new COVID-19 cases, including 620 symptomatic patients, as the total number of positive cases in the country reached 2,516,889, according to its health ministry.
The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 110 to 26,577, while the total recoveries climbed to 2,404,416 after 8,217 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours.
The country started mass vaccination of health workers against COVID-19 on Jan. 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine. More than 2,589,000 people have been vaccinated so far.