A health worker inoculates a student with a dose of the Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus at his school in Karachi on Jan 24, 2022. (ASIF HASSAN / AFP)
VIENTIANE / YANGON / SINGAPORE / BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN / JAKARTA / HANOI / WELLINGTON / KUALA LUMPUR / SEOUL / NEW DELHI / SUVA / ULAN BATOR / ISLAMABAD – Pakistan on Thursday closed its National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), a department formulating policies and supervising their implementation in the national fight against COVID-19, after a persistent decline in new cases and fatalities, the department's chairman said.
The decision was made after the country achieved a high level of vaccination besides all-time low indicators of the pandemic, NCOC Chairman Asad Umar said in a tweet, adding that Thursday is the last day of NCOC operation.
Pakistan recorded 244 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, the NCOC said.
Umar said the country's health ministry will take charge of the COVID-19 response and vaccination process.
Lauding the department for its outstanding performance against the disease, Prime Minister Imran Khan said the leadership and team of the department achieved success due to their professional and nationally-coordinated response to the pandemic.
The NCOC was formed in March 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic in the country, under the directives of the prime minister to collate, analyze and process the pandemic information received from across the country and take measures accordingly.
Brunei
Brunei reported 745 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the national tally to 133,726.
All the newly recorded cases were local infections, the country's health ministry said.
As of March 29, 61.2 percent of Brunei's 420,000 population have received three doses of the COVID-19 vaccines.
A teacher adjusts a facemask to a student as their school reopened after a gap of nearly one year due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in Srinagar on March 2, 2022. (TAUSEEF MUSTAFA / AFP)
India
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 43,024,440 on Thursday, as 1,225 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
Besides, as many as 28 deaths due to the pandemic were reported since Wednesday morning, taking the total death toll to 521,129.
Indonesia
Indonesia confirmed 3,840 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the total tally to 6,009,486, the Health Ministry said.
According to the ministry, the death toll from COVID-19 rose by 118 to 155,000.
Laos
COVID-19 cases continued to increase and spread across Laos, with 2,762 new infections reported on Thursday.
According to a report by the Center of Information and Education for Health under the Lao Ministry of Health, the country recorded 2,762 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, including 2,743 community cases.
The Lao capital Vientiane logged the highest number of infections with 1,355, according to the report.
Laos recorded one more death in the northern Luang Namtha province, bringing the COVID-19 death toll to 665.
A woman passes by a poster of the 35th ASEAN summit and related summits in Bangkok, Thailand, Oct 30, 2019. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
In another development, Lao Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Suanesavanh Vignaket said on Wednesday that the ASEAN countries should strengthen their cooperation in slowing the spread of COVID-19.
"The COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to affect the region and the world and is having a long-term effect, not only on socio-economic development, but also on people-to-people connectivity," the Lao minister said when virtually addressing the 27th ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Council Meeting.
The minister added that "the renewed outbreak comes at a time when we are also facing a sharp increase in the price of fuel and a cost of living crisis as inflation soars."
She called for ASEAN nations to step up collaboration in monitoring new COVID-19 variants so as to help bring the pandemic under control and to strengthen regional efforts to address future public health emergencies.
Malaysia
Malaysia reported 15,941 new COVID-19 infections as of midnight Wednesday, bringing the national total to 4,183,359, according to the health ministry.
There are 168 new imported cases and 15,773 local transmissions, data released on the ministry's website showed.
A further 33 deaths have been reported, bringing the country's COVID-19 death toll to 34,939.
Mongolia
Mongolia has recorded 112 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the national caseload to 469,394, the country's health ministry said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, no new related deaths were reported in the past day, leaving the death toll unchanged at 2,108.
A health worker gives the first-time dose of COVID-19 vaccine to a woman, part of the 65 years and older tier, in a school being used as a vaccination site in Yangon, Myanmar on Feb 5, 2021. (STR / AFP)
Myanmar
Myanmar's public universities and degree colleges, which were suspended two years ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will reopen from May 12, state-run media reported on Thursday.
According to the Education Ministry, all arts and science universities and education degree colleges in the Southeast Asian country will resume all classes and courses from May 12.
Students who passed the matriculation exam in the 2019-20 academic year can also join the first-year classes, the ministry said.
The move came after the country eased COVID-19 restrictions including allowing gatherings of 400 people in public places.
Meanwhile, more than 2.2 million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines donated by China through the COVAX Facility arrived in Myanmar's Yangon on Wednesday, according to the Information Ministry.
According to the figures released by the Health Ministry, more than 49.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in the country and more than 21.8 million people have been fully vaccinated as of Tuesday.
Besides, over 1 million people in the country had received a booster as of Tuesday.
New Zealand
New Zealand reported 15,250 new community cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, said the Ministry of Health in a statement.
The ministry also reported 22 new deaths from COVID-19 in the country.
Singapore
Singapore reported 5,729 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total tally to 1,090,823.
Of the new cases, 765 cases were detected through PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests and 4,964 through ART (antigen rapid test) tests, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health.
Digital screens showing safety precautions against the coronavirus are seen in a subway train in in Seoul, South Korea on March 22, 2022. (AHN YOUNG-JOON / AP)
South Korea
South Korea reported 320,743 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight Wednesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 13,095,631, the health authorities said Thursday.
The daily caseload was down from 424,641 in the prior day, and it was lower than 395,532 a week earlier, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
Vanuatu
Vanuatu reported on Thursday its first two confirmed deaths from the COVID-19 Omicron variant following the recent community transmission.
According to the newspaper Daily Post, Vanuatu's Minister of Health Bruno Leingkone confirmed that the victims were a 22-year-old female and a five-year-old boy with underlying health conditions before contracting the virus.
In its ongoing public awareness, the Ministry of Health has been emphasizing that people with underlying health conditions and the elderly must get vaccinated as they are at higher risk of serious illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19.
Vietnam
Vietnam recorded 85,765 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, down by 2,613 cases from Tuesday, according to its Ministry of Health.
The new infections, logged in 62 localities nationwide, included 85,759 domestically transmitted and six imported.