People wearing face masks walk near an electronic tower showing the COVID-19 vaccination rates along a street in Seoul, South Korea on Nov 1, 2021. (LEE JIN-MAN / AP)
AUSTRALIA / CAMBODIA / INDONESIA / ISRAEL / LAOS / NEPAL / THE PHILIPPINES / SAUDI ARABIA / SINGAPORE / SOUTH KOREA / TURKEY – South Korea opened COVID-19 quarantine centers on Thursday to house potentially thousands of teenagers with COVID-19 ahead of the country's grueling eight-hour college entrance exam in two weeks.
The highly competitive exam, held just once a year, is considered a life-defining event for many high school students, as a degree from a prestigious university is seen as the bare minimum for securing one of the coveted but limited corporate jobs in Asia's fourth-largest economy.
To ensure every student who wants to be able to take the test, the government opened residential quarantine centers in hospitals and other treatment centers that can accommodate up to 3,000 students.
Around 510,000 final-year high school students, about 40 percent of the total across the country, are scheduled to take the mammoth test, which encompasses subjects ranging from languages to mathematics and science.
The quarantine centers opened on Thursday will house confirmed COVID-19 cases and possibly any students who come into contact with an infected person over the next two weeks.
It was unclear how many, if any, students were in the quarantine centers on Thursday. The Education Ministry is not expected to disclose the number of quarantined students who plan to take the test until closer to the exam date of Nov 18.
On the test day, there will be 112 centers specifically for students who have been in quarantine and 33 hospitals and treatment centers will prepare special rooms for students with the virus, on top of the regular 1,255 test centers.
South Korea began easing social distancing rules this week as a part of a plan to gradually move toward living with COVID-19, buoyed by high vaccination levels among the country's adult population.
Almost 90 percent of the adult population has been fully vaccinated, although the rate for children aged between 12 and 17 is just 0.6 percent because inoculations for that cohort began only in recent weeks.
While the most recent virus wave has brought far fewer serious infections than earlier outbreaks, the government said on Wednesday it would ramp up COVID-19 testing at schools after a sharp rise of infections among children.
The government is doing checks on hundreds of exam prep tuition centers and popular facilities like internet cafes, study rooms and karaoke parlors over the coming two weeks to ensure people are complying with social distancing measures, including mask wearing.
All high school classes will switch to remote learning from a week ahead of the exam to avoid any transmission, while parents are asked to stay home and avoid outside contacts.
South Korea has decided to donate an additional 290,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to Vietnam, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday.
South Korea provided 1.1 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines for Vietnam and 470,000 doses of the vaccines for Thailand on Oct 12, while donating 1 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to Iran on Oct 25.
The Seoul ministry said in a statement that the additional donation would contribute to the improved friendly ties between South Korea and Vietnam and the global efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
It came as South Korea's full vaccination rate topped 70 percent of the population, a major precondition set by the government to ease antivirus measures.
In the latest tally, the country administered COVID-19 vaccines to 80.5 percent of the population, with 75.9 percent being fully vaccinated.
The country reported 2,482 new cases for Wednesday. It has recorded a total of 373,120 infections, with 2,916 deaths so far. Hospitals are treating about 365 critical cases.
Australia
Australia reported more than 1,500 new locally-acquired coronavirus cases and 13 deaths as the country continues to battle the third wave of COVID-19 infections on Thursday.
The majority of new cases were in Victoria, the country's second-most populous state with Melbourne as the capital city, where 1,247 cases and nine deaths were reported.
As of Wednesday, 88.7 percent of Australians aged 16 and older have received one COVID-19 vaccine dose and 78.5 percent were fully vaccinated, according to the Department of Health.
A young girl receives a shot of the Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine at a Krang Thnong health center outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov 1, 2021. (HENG SINITH / AP PHOTO)
Cambodia
Primary schools and kindergartens in Cambodia are the latest general education institutions that have been reopened since Monday after secondary and high schools as well as universities have been reopened since mid-September.
Cambodia has so far vaccinated 13.85 million people, or 86.5 percent of its 16-million population against the COVID-19, and has seen a significant decline in new infections and fatalities, according to the Ministry of Health.
The kingdom reported 83 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, pushing the national total caseload to 118,870, the Ministry of Health said, adding that six new fatalities were recorded, bringing the overall death toll to 2,813.
Additional 96 patients recovered, taking the total number of recoveries to 115,207, the Ministry of Health said.
Indonesia
Bill Gates may invest in a project to produce mRNA vaccines in Indonesia, according to the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs. Separately, State Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir said on Instagram that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will work with state-owned vaccine maker PT Bio Farma to produce a local COVID-19 vaccine.
Indonesia’s current COVID oubreak has ebbed to the lowest levels in more than a year. Still, only 45 percent of the archipelago’s 270 million people have had even one dose of vaccine, with just 28 percent fully innoculated. Earlier, the government cut the Christmas public holiday by one day and barred civil servants from taking leave during the holiday in an effort to prevent another travel-related outbreak.
Israel
Israeli researchers have identified the proteins in the coronavirus that can damage blood vessels, Tel Aviv University in central Israel said on Wednesday.
The identification of these proteins may help develop drugs that could stop the virus's activity, or at least minimize damage to blood vessels, according to TAU.
Proteins in the SARS-CoV-2 virus are responsible for severe vascular disease and blood clotting that could even lead to heart attack or stroke.
In a new study, published in the journal eLife, a team of experts led by TAU has been able to identify five of the 29 proteins that make up the virus and responsible for damaging blood vessels or the endothelial cells that line the vessels.
To identify the proteins, the team used the RNA of each of the COVID-19 proteins and examined the reaction that occurred when the various RNA sequences were inserted into human blood vessel cells in the lab.
When the virus produces its 29 proteins in the human body, the blood vessels turn from opaque tubes into kind of permeable nets or pieces of cloth, and there is also an increase in blood clotting, the researchers explained.
The five specific proteins cause the greatest damage to endothelial cells and hence to vascular stability and function, they concluded.
Laos
Laos reported another record high of 1,170 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, surpassing the previous record of 1,062 cases registered on Wednesday, according to the Lao Ministry of Health.
Of the new cases, 1,165 were locally transmitted and five were imported, Deputy Director General of the National Center for Laboratory and Epidemiology under the Lao Ministry of Health, Bouaphan Khamphaphongphan, told a press conference in Lao capital Vientiane on Thursday.
Three more people died from the virus.
Of the new cases, Lao capital Vientiane again reported the highest number with 591.
As of Thursday, a total of 44,061 COVID-19 cases have been reported countrywide while 76 people have died from the virus.
Laos reported its first two COVID-19 cases on Mar 24 last year.
Nepal
Nepal on Wednesday received a fresh shipment of 1.6 million Vero Cell vaccine jabs granted by the Chinese government to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic, a senior official from the Nepali Ministry of Health and Population said.
Nepal, battered now by two waves of the coronavirus, started its vaccination campaign in late January, and 8.71 million of the 30 million population have received the first dose by Wednesday, while 7.38 million have been fully vaccinated.
The Philippines
The Philippines' Department of Health reported 1,591 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, the lowest since Feb 24, pushing the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 2,793,898.
The DOH also reported that 186 more people died from COVID-19 complications, bringing the country's death toll to 43,586. Seven laboratories failed to submit data.
Metro Manila will lift a curfew from midnight to 4:00 am local time in the capital region starting Thursday to allow malls to operate longer hours during the holiday season, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chair Benjamin Abalos said.
The Philippines has eased the lockdown rules amid a dip in the daily COVID-19 cases and progress in the vaccination in Metro Manila, home to more than 13 million people, and other regions. The move allowed the opening of more businesses needed to revive the pandemic-hit economy.
The government said 87.78 percent of Metro Manila's target population have received the full double-vaccine doses. Metro Manila remains under alert level 3 on a scale of 5.
Saudi Arabia
The Saudi Food and Drug Authority said on Wednesday it had given its approval to use Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for those between five and eleven years of age.
The authority added in a statement its decision was "based on data provided by the company, which showed the vaccine met the special regulatory requirements".
An Antigen Rapid Testing Self-Test Kits vending machine is seen in Singapore, Sept 28, 2021. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)
Singapore
Singapore’s COVID-19 outbreak may be slowing.
The number of new local infections fell in the past week compared to a week earlier for the first time since mid-October, marking a key milestone that could lead to an easing of restrictions in the financial hub.
The Southeast Asian city-state is tracking its local caseload on a week-over-week basis to show how fast and in what direction the virus is moving. Called the weekly infection growth rate, the ratio is critical for Singapore’s reopening plans. Getting the number consistently below 1 is a government target, which could trigger the next round of calibrated easing of some COVID curbs, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said last month.
On Wednesday night, the Ministry of Health reported that the ratio of community cases for the past week, compared to a week earlier, had fallen to 0.96. A total of 3,635 new cases were recorded over the past day, a sharp drop from a week earlier when there was a mysterious surge of new infections.
It’s unknown how fast the government may move now that the infection growth rate that it targeted has been reached. It dipped below 1 for a few days in mid-October before rising again, so easing may not come immediately.
Turkey
Turkey will start administering the third dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Wednesday.
The booster dose will be applied to those who have passed six months after receiving the second dose of mRNA vaccines, Koca said in a statement after a coronavirus science board meeting.
It includes people aged 60 and above, citizens between the ages of 18 and 60 with chronic diseases, and those in high-risk professions particularly health workers, he added.
Turkey on Wednesday confirmed 29,764 new COVID-19 cases, raising its total tally of infections to 8,121,226, according to its health ministry.
Turkey started mass COVID-19 vaccination on Jan 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine.
More than 55.51 million people have received their first doses of vaccines, and over 48.92 million have taken their second doses. Turkey has so far administered over 116.83 million doses, including the booster jabs with the Sinovac vaccine.