A woman receives a dose of the Sinopharm COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at the Mount Elizabeth hospital vaccine center in Singapore on Sept 7, 2021. (ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP)
AMMAN / BEIRUT / HANOI / JERUSALEM / KUALA LUMPUR / SEOUL / SYDNEY / TOKYO / VIENTIANE – Two Singapore residents may have caught the Omicron variant even after receiving COVID-19 booster shots, in cases which may shed light on the protection offered by a third dose of vaccine.
A 24-year-old female airport passenger-service worker has returned a preliminary positive test to Omicron, in what would be the city-state’s first local case of the variant, the health ministry said in a statement late Thursday. The second person is considered an imported case after returning from Germany via the vaccinated travel lane on Dec 6. Both had received a third dose of vaccines, the ministry said.
Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE earlier this week said initial lab studies show a third dose of their COVID-19 vaccine may be needed to neutralize the omicron variant.
Both people are recovering in isolation at the National Center for Infectious Diseases, and all close contacts will be placed in 10-day quarantine at designated facilities, the ministry said.
A family leaves to board a plane at Sydney's International Airport on Nov 1, 2021, as Australia's international border reopens almost 600 days after a pandemic closure began. (SAEED KHAN
/ AFP)
Australia
Australia will begin administering COVID-19 vaccines for children aged 5 to 11 from Jan 10, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday, after the rollout cleared final regulatory hurdles.
After reviewing clinical data from Canada, the country's vaccination advisory group recommended an eight-week interval between the two doses, which can be shortened to three weeks if there is an outbreak.
Pfizer doses will be administered in the initial phase, while regulators assess the suitability of Moderna shots. A decision is expected in the coming weeks.
The decision comes as Australia seeks to accelerate the rollout of booster shots after becoming one of the world's most-vaccinated countries against COVID-19, inoculating nearly 90 percent of its population above 16 with two doses. Some 70 percent of children aged 12 to 15 have been fully vaccinated.
New South Wales state, which includes Sydney, reported 516 new cases on Friday, its biggest rise in two months.
Israel
The number of COVID-19 patients in serious condition in Israel has dropped below 100 for the first time since July 25,2021, the Ministry of Health said Thursday
The number of COVID-19 patients in serious condition in Israel has dropped below 100 for the first time since July 25, the Ministry of Health said Thursday.
The number of coronavirus patients in serious condition in Israel has dropped to 90, compared to 102 reported on Wednesday.
The number of active coronavirus cases in Israel stands at 5,798, out of 1,348,800 cases detected since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country at the end of February 2020.
Japan
Japan has found eight new cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, a government spokesperson said on Friday, bringing its total to 12.
All the cases have been found during testing of arrivals at airports. Two of the new cases were close contacts of the first case, a diplomat from Namibia.
Spokesperson Seiji Kihara declined to give further details on the eight passengers, but Nippon Television reported that they were traveling from the United States and parts of Africa.
Jordan
Jordan on Thursday reported 5,153 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total caseload in the kingdom to 998,492, the Jordanian Ministry of Health said in a statement.
The ministry also confirmed 29 deaths from the coronavirus, bringing the kingdom's COVID-19 death toll to 11,879.
It said that there are currently 65,953 active COVID-19 cases in Jordan.
A total of 4,080 recoveries were registered on Thursday, bringing the total number of recoveries in Jordan to 920,660, the statement said.
Laos
Lao Ministry of Health on Friday recorded 1,644 local COVID-19 transmissions, the highest daily infection ever, taking the total tally to 86,148.
The National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control reported 1,644 locally transmitted cases and one new imported, Deputy Director General of the Department of Communicable Diseases Control under Lao Ministry of Health Sisavath Soutthaniraxay told a press conference in Lao capital Vientiane on Friday.
The country recorded seven new deaths in the past 24 hours, raising its national death toll to 231, Sisavath added.
Lebanon
Lebanon's Health Ministry said on Thursday that it has detected the first two cases of the COVID-19 Omicron variant when passengers were tested upon arrival at the Beirut airport.
"Two cases detected in airport testing were confirmed to be the Omicron variant," Health Minister Firas Abiad said at a press conference.
The two passengers arrived in Lebanon from the African continent and had been placed in quarantine, he added.
Lebanon reported on Wednesday 1,994 new cases, and the total number of infections in the country reached 683,326, while death toll from the virus went up by 9 cases to 8,804.
Malaysia
Malaysia recorded 5,446 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Thursday, bringing the total tally to 2,678,465, according to the health ministry on Friday.
Of the new cases, 20 were imported and 5,426 were local transmissions, showed data released on the ministry's website.
The ministry also reported 41 more deaths in the pandemic, bringing the coronavirus death toll to 30,787.
Meanwhile, the ministry said 5,427 more recovered patients were discharged in the Southeast Asian country, bringing the total number of recoveries to 2,586,822.
The country reported 140,831 vaccine doses administered on Thursday alone, and that some 79.3 percent of the total population has received at least one dose and 78 percent are fully vaccinated.
People wearing face masks pass by a poster about precautions against the coronavirus at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea, July 13, 2021. (AHN YOUNG-JOON / AP)
South Korea
South Korea's health authorities on Thursday asked teenagers to receive COVID-19 vaccine amid the rising infection cases of minors.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said in a statement that it strongly recommends the vaccination of teenagers as the number of confirmed cases continued to grow among unvaccinated teenagers.
The total number of confirmed cases among those aged 12-17 gained from 3,630 in September to 4,837 in October and 6,612 in November.
For the past four weeks, the number of infections per 100,000 minors aged 18 or lower stood at 210.1, higher than 167.3 for adults aged 19 or higher.
In South Korea, coronavirus vaccine booster shots for those 18 or older can be given three months after their primary vaccination, compared with the previous five-month interval, Yonhap News reported, citing Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum.
The country is in the midst of a COVID-19 surge, despite being one of the most vaccinated places in Asia. South Korea, lauded throughout the pandemic for its sophisticated approach to testing and contact tracing, saw a record number of new infections this week, with 852 people seriously ill Friday.
READ MORE: S.Korea's COVID-19 rules put vaccinated foreigners in limbo
People wearing face masks remove a barricade in Vung Tau, Vietnam, Sept 30, 2021. (HAU DINH / AP)
Vietnam
Vietnam reported 15,311 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, including 15,300 locally transmitted and 11 imported, according to the Ministry of Health.
Most of the community cases were reported in southern localities, including 1,453 in Ho Chi Minh City, 895 in Tay Ninh province and 789 in Soc Trang province. The Vietnamese capital Hanoi also recorded 822 COVID-19 cases, up 426 from Wednesday.
The infections brought the country's total tally to 1,367,433 with 27,186 deaths, said the ministry. Nationwide, 1,050,979 patients have so far recovered, up 14,586 from Wednesday.
Nearly 130 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including some 56 million second shots, have been administered, according to the ministry.