People make their way down a busy street past food stalls and massage parlors in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 17, 2021. (JACK TAYLOR / AFP)
TEHRAN / ANKARA / PHNOM PENH / KABUL / BANGKOK / KUALA LUMPUR / HANOI / BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN – Thailand accelerated vaccine rollout as it began a mass vaccination program Monday amid efforts to contain its worst COVID-19 outbreak so far and ensure the country's wider reopening to vaccinated foreign visitors.
On Monday, the first day of the program, the country administered 416,847 doses of vaccines, compared with a daily average of fewer than 50,000 doses during the past three months, according to data from the Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) released on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Thailand reported 2,662 new cases, bringing the total caseload to 182,548, jumping more than sixfold from the beginning of April when the third wave of outbreak started to spread from the capital Bangkok, according to the CCSA.
The country also reported 28 fatalities, taking the death toll to 1,297.
Singapore
COVID-19 sequencing in Singapore has revealed the emergence of the Delta variant as the country’s major local virus strain, underscoring the highly infectious nature of the mutation that has proliferated globally since its first detection in India.
Of these cases to date, 449 have been found to be caused by variants of concern, among which 428 were infections of the Delta strain, said the country’s health ministry. The next largest group was nine cases linked to the beta mutation that first emerged in South Africa.
The “current understanding” is that some variants, including the Delta mutation, “are more transmissible,” a spokesperson for Singapore’s health ministry said on Tuesday in a response to questions from Bloomberg News. “Studies are ongoing to get a more complete understanding of these variants and we will adjust our strategies as more information is made available.”
Singapore reacted aggressively to the flareup linked to the variant by barring visitors from India in April and extending quarantines at government-designated facilities. It has also limited gatherings to two people, moved school lessons online and barred dining-in last month to slow spread.
The country’s authorities only found four locally transmitted coronavirus infections on Tuesday, extending a streak of low daily counts since the start of the week. Yet only one of the four cases was linked to earlier infections while three were untraceable, showing the difficulty faced in completely eradicating the recent outbreak.
The decline in cases comes ahead of a possible easing of restrictions after June 13. Meanwhile, the pace of Singapore’s immunization drive has been hampered by limited vaccine supplies, with the government stretching out the interval between doses to six to eight weeks in order to cover more people with a first shot.
Vietnam
An advisory board of Vietnam’s health ministry has recommended the approval for emergency use of the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the state-run Vietnam News Agency reported on Tuesday.
Vietnam has said it is seeking to procure 31 million doses of the vaccine for delivery in the next quarter.
Vietnam reported 175 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, including 171 locally transmitted and four imported, bringing the total tally to 9,158, according to the country's Ministry of Health.
Among the community cases, 165 were reported in quarantine facilities or lockdown areas. In terms of localities, 98 were detected in the northern epidemic hotspot Bac Giang province, 39 in the southern Ho Chi Minh City, and 25 in the northern Bac Ninh province.
The health ministry also said on Tuesday that two more COVID-19 patients had died with severe underlying conditions, which took the number of deaths related to the coronavirus in the country to 55.
New Zealand
Pfizer has scheduled delivery of an estimated 1 million doses of vaccine to New Zealand during July, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said on Tuesday.
"These consignments will double the total number of Pfizer doses we have received this year to more than 1.9 million, enough to fully vaccinate almost 1 million Kiwis," Hipkins said in a statement.
"The doses will arrive in weekly drops, ramping up in quantity from mid-July as we start to move to the wider population roll out," Hipkins said.
With the new batches, the government will start the vaccination of a new group which is everyone over the age of 65 and people with disabilities and some underlying health conditions. It's a group of more than 1 million people and will take time to work through, he said.
Around 20,000 doses a day were currently being administered and the Pfizer deliveries throughout July will enable this to increase significantly. At the peak of the program in August and September 50,000 doses are expected to be administered per day, the minister said.
To date, over a quarter of a million people have been fully vaccinated in New Zealand, he said, adding, "Starting later next month we will start making it available, for free, to everyone in New Zealand over the age of 16."
Pakistan
Supported by strict measures and vaccination drive, Pakistan on Monday reported a COVID-19 positivity rate below 3 percent for the first time in 2021, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Tuesday.
According to the data from the NCOC, Pakistan's department leading its campaign against the pandemic, the country conducted 46,882 tests on Monday across the country bringing out 1,383 new cases with a positivity rate of 2.95 percent.
Earlier in March and April this year, the country witnessed a positivity ratio of over 11 percent for several times, leading the government to impose strict measures, including the closure of educational institutes, markets, public parks, wedding halls, restaurants, public transport and all other large gatherings.
With the start of May 2021, the positivity rate dropped to below 10 percent and it went down to below 5 percent on May 22 and finally fell to below 3 percent on Monday, according to the data from the NCOC.
Pakistan's overall number of cases rose to 935,013, including 867,447 recoveries since February last year when the country reported its first COVID-19 case.
India
Many more men in India have received COVID-19 vaccines than women, government data showed on Tuesday, highlighting gender disparity in the country’s immunisation drive that has also disadvantaged the rural population.
India has partly or fully vaccinated about 101 million men, nearly 17 percent more than women. Men account for 54 percent of the total number of people inoculated, according to the data.
Many federally administered regions, the capital Delhi, and big states such as Uttar Pradesh have seen some of the worst inequities. Only Kerala in the south and Chhattisgarh in central India have vaccinated more women than men.
Health officials say rumours about vaccines disrupting women's menstruation cycle and reducing fertility have also contributed to the skewed data. The government has rejected the concerns.
Some women in the rural parts of Gujarat and neighbouring Rajasthan state have urged the authorities to deliver vaccines at their doorstep, saying they are unable to travel to hospitals leaving their children behind.
India's vaccination policy has evolved fast but the federal government has so far resisted calls for door-to-door immunisations given that the vaccines have only been authorised for emergency use and recipients need to be monitored for a short period for any adverse reactions.
India’s new infections dipped to less than 100,000 cases for the first time since April 6, signaling that the country’s deadly second wave that overwhelmed its hospitals and crematoriums has eased. The country with the second-largest number of cases reported 86,498 new infections Tuesday, also lower than the peak in September last year during the first wave of COVID-19.
The total tally rose to 29 million while COVID-related deaths rose by 2,123 to 351,309, according to latest data from India’s health ministry. The second wave, which saw a record 414,188 new cases on May 7, has been tapering sharply. Experts, however, have emphasized the need for continuous genome sequencing to watch for any new virus mutations that can thwart this recovery.
Cambodia
Cambodia's COVID-19 vaccination drive has received another boost after the country got a new batch of Chinese vaccines on Tuesday.
Cambodian health ministry's secretary of state Yok Sambath said the new arrival included Sinopharm vaccine donated by the Chinese government and those purchased from Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech.
Sambath said both Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines are very safe and effective, expressing her profound gratitude to China for subsequently providing vaccines to Cambodia.
The Southeast Asian nation has so far acquired more than 7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from China and the World Health Organization's COVAX Facility, she said.
The Philippines
The Philippines has cleared Sinopharm Group Co. Ltd.’s coronavirus vaccine, adding to the more than 15 million doses expected to arrive in the coming weeks as the nation aims to accelerate inoculation and revive the economy.
Sinopharm was approved for emergency use so the government can receive the state-owned company’s vaccine donations, Food and Drug Administration head Eric Domingo said on Monday evening at a weekly briefing. The Philippines has inoculated about 6 million, of which 1.5 million have received their second dose, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez said.
The nation has received 9.3 million doses of vaccines and is expecting 11 million to arrive this month including 4.5 million from Sinovac Biotech Ltd., 2.28 million from Pfizer Inc. and 2 million from AstraZeneca Plc through Covax facility and 250,000 from Moderna Inc, Galvez said. More than 5 million doses could come in July and as much as 17 million in August, he said.
The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported on Tuesday 4,777 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,280,773.
Tuesday's caseload is the lowest since May 25 when DOH reported 3,972.
Indonesia
Indonesia added 6,993 cases on Monday, the most since March 4, as the government warned that new infections are set to keep picking up until June or July.
The expected resurgence after the Eid holiday in late May could last for about five to seven weeks as people gradually return from their hometowns, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said. About half of the 72,000 beds allocated for Covid-19 patients have been filled, he added.
Indonesia has asked for more COVID-19 vaccines from China through Covax. The Indonesian government has offered to become the production hub for China’s vaccines in Asean as it seeks to improve collaboration.
Australia
Health authorities in the Australian state of Victoria, battling to contain the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19, have found a genomic link to one of the cases with a returned traveller.
The health authorities, who have been investigating the Delta cases in Victoria since last week, have yet to find a link with any other cases across Australia.
Victoria's Acting Premier James Merlino said on Tuesday that a match had been made with a returned traveller who had entered hotel quarantine in the state capital of Melbourne on May 8.
Australia’s Victoria state authorities said plans to ease COVID-19 restrictions in state capital, Melbourne, this week remained “on track” as new locally acquired coronavirus cases fell on Tuesday.
Victoria, Australia's second-most-populous state, was plunged into a snap one-week hard lockdown on May 27 to contain a virus outbreak, forcing its 7 million residents to remain home except for essential business.
The lockdown was extended in Melbourne until June 10, while some restrictions were relaxed in other regions in the state.
Two new locally acquired cases, both linked to existing clusters, were reported on Tuesday, down from 11 a day earlier.
Iran
Iran on Tuesday reported 8,846 new COVID-19 cases, taking the country's total infections to 2,980,116.
The pandemic has so far claimed 81,362 lives in Iran, up by 179 in the past 24 hours, the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education reported.
Turkey
Turkey on Monday reported 5,647 new COVID-19 cases, including 495 symptomatic patients, raising the total number in the country to 5,293,627, according to its health ministry.
The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 91 to 48,255, while the total recoveries climbed to 5,167,350 after 6,576 more recovered in the last 24 hours.
The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients stands at 2.7 percent while the number of seriously ill patients is 1,060 in the country, said the ministry.
Kuwait
Kuwait registered on Monday 1,479 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total infections in the country to 318,676, the Kuwaiti Health Ministry reported.
The ministry also announced three more fatalities, taking the death toll in Kuwait to 1,798, while the tally of recoveries rose by 1,256 to 302,393.
A total of 14,485 COVID-19 patients were receiving treatment, including 153 in the intensive care units, it said.
The Kuwaiti government decided on Monday to resume direct flight to Britain from June 13 with adherence to health precautions against COVID-19.
Lebanon
Lebanon registered on Monday 71 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest single-day increase since July 20, 2020, raising the total number of infections in the country to 541,628, the Health Ministry said.
Meanwhile, the death toll from the virus went up by six to 7,769.
The positive rate of COVID-19 testing in Lebanon dropped from 15 percent in mid-April to two percent after the administration of vaccines, according to the ministry.
Around 11.6 percent of the population have been administered the first shot of COVID-19 vaccines while six percent have taken full doses, the ministry noted.
Iraq
Iraq's Ministry of Health reported 4,129 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the nationwide caseload to 1,229,121.
The ministry also confirmed 28 new deaths, bringing the death toll from the virus to 16,566, while the total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 4,652 to 1,146,745.
A total of 10,719,740 tests have been carried out in Iraq since the outbreak of the disease in February 2020, with 40,407 done during the day, the ministry said in a statement.
Oman
The Omani health ministry on Monday announced 1,216 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 225,095, the official Oman News Agency reported.
Meanwhile, the overall recoveries reached 205,305 while 11 fatalities were reported, pushing the death toll up to 2,424, according to a ministry statement carried by ONA.
South Korea
South Korea injected 857,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses on Monday, setting a daily record in its inoculation drive that took its vaccination rate to 16.4 percent for a first dose, data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) showed.
Hitherto, a slow vaccine rollout due to global shortages and shipment delays had complicated South Korea's efforts to subdue latest wave of infections, after the country won plaudits last year for using aggressive and high-tech contact tracing to quickly tamp down on outbreaks.
But with the inoculation drive ramping up, South Korea said last week that it expects to meet its vaccination target for the first half of the year by inoculating up to 14 million people ahead of schedule.
The government plans to vaccinate 70 percent of its 52 million population by the third quarter, starting with kindergarten and primary school teachers during summer break, with the aim of achieving herd immunity before November.
South Korea reported 454 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Monday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 145,091.
The daily caseload was down from 485 in the prior day, staying below 500 for two days. The daily average caseload for the past week was 613.
Nineteen cases were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 9,200.
Mongolia
Mongolia's COVID-19 tally on Tuesday reached 67,710 after registering 1,267 new locally transmitted cases in the last 24 hours, the country's health ministry said.
Meanwhile, five more fatalities and 632 more recoveries were reported, taking the national counts to 332 and to 54,713, the ministry said in a statement.
The Asian country launched a national vaccination campaign against COVID-19 in late February to inoculate at least 60 percent of its total population of 3.3 million.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan's Public Health Ministry reported 1,724 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, taking the total infections to 84,050.
The pandemic has so far claimed 3,305 lives in Afghanistan since February last year, including 54 deaths in the past 24 hours, the ministry said in a statement.
Malaysia
Malaysia reported another 5,566 new COVID-19 infections, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday, bringing the national total to 627,652.
Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that four of the new cases are imported and 5,562 are local transmissions.
Despite the drop in daily infections, the official cautioned that the situation remains worrisome with a high number of active cases still being treated including those in intensive care and in need of assisted breathing, limiting the ability to treat critical non-COVID-19 patients.
Another 76 deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to 3,536.
Brunei
Brunei reported two new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the national tally to 246.
According to Brunei's Ministry of Health, one new case is a 44-year-old man and the other is a 52-year-old man, who both arrived from Manila, the Philippines on May 26, and showed no symptoms of infection.
Investigation and contact tracing have confirmed no close contacts for the infections, as they were quarantined upon arrival in the country.