Travelers are processed at the international arrivals hall at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Tuban near Denpasar on Indonesia's resort island of Bali on Feb 16, 2022, after a Singapore Airlines flight arrived following a nearly two-year break due to COVID-19. (SONNY TUMBELAKA / AFP)
JERUSALEM / AMMAN / JAKARTA / SINGAPORE / HANOI / KUALA LUMPUR / NEW DELHI / ULAN BATOR / SUVA / WELLINGTON / SYDNEY/ SEOUL / YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia / VIENTIANE – Group of 20 major economies chair Indonesia has started talks with members on standardizing health protocols for travel, its health minister said on Monday, stressing the importance of harmonizing rules and technology as global travel resumes.
"Every person on this earth who travels… can do so more efficiently," minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told a news conference at a G20 health meeting in Yogyakarta, where standardzsing requirements is being discussed.
Indonesia proposal, however, is that standardization must still adhere to COVID-19 policies of respective countries, including which vaccines, tests, or testing authorities they would recognize, he said.
"The principle remains that we respect sovereignty of all nations," he added.
Budi said Indonesia had discussed harmonizing protocols also with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union, for travel between both regions.
His remarks come as many countries relax restrictions to try to revive tourism and business travel, including Indonesia, which last week waived quarantine requirements after two years of tight border controls.
Staff offer flowers to passengers upon their arrival at the Sydney International Airport on Feb 21, 2022, as Australia reopened its borders for fully vaccinated visa holders, tourists, and business travelers. (SAEED KHAN / AFP)
Australia
The daily cases of COVID-19 have begun to stabilize in Australia's eastern most populous states, abating initial fears that the Omicron BA.2 sub-variant would trigger a new wave.
The daily cases in New South Wales fell to 16,199 on Monday, marking the fourth consecutive day in which cases dropped from a high of 24,803 reported last Thursday. However, the number of patients in hospitals with the virus jumped by 100 overnight to 1,270.
In the nation's second-largest state, Victoria, 8,739 new cases were reported on Monday after a peak of just over 10,000 late last week.
Similarly, cases in Queensland have eased off over the weekend falling to 7,816 from over 11,000 late last week.
Queensland's Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said on Sunday that they are expecting the peak is yet to come.
"We're not sure when this wave is going to peak but we expect some time in April," said D'Ath.
Fears that the more transmissible BA.2 sub-variant, which has fast become the dominant variant across Australia, would lead to a sharp uptick in cases has so far not been seen.
India
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 43,020,723 on Monday with 1,270 new cases registered during the past 24 hours across the South Asian country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
A further 31 deaths due to the pandemic since Sunday morning took the coronavirus death toll to 521,035.
Indonesia
Indonesia on Sunday confirmed 3,077 new COVID-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 5,998,953, the country's health ministry said.
According to the ministry, the death toll from COVID-19 in the country rose by 100 to 154,670.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (right) and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shake hands during a press statement after their meeting at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, on March 27, 2022. (ABIR SULTAN / POOL VIA AP)
Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has tested positive for COVID-19 but feels well and will work while self-isolating at home, his office said on Monday.
The news came hours after Bennett, who has been vaccinated against the coronavirus and received a booster dose, visited the scene of a shooting in the Israeli city of Hadera, where two Arab gunmen killed two police officers before being shot dead.
"This morning, the prime minister will conduct an assessment … of last night's attack," Bennett's office added in a statement.
Participants would include the ministers of defesce and internal security, the military's chief of staff and the national police chief, it added.
Bennett met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Jerusalem on Sunday.
The prime minister, who turned 50 on Friday, has been a vocal proponent of vaccinations and masking, while avoiding lockdowns, as Israel battles the pandemic.
Israelis wait in line as a man receives a third Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Tel Aviv, Israel, Aug 1, 2021. (SEBASTIAN SCHEINER / FILE / AP)
In another development, senior citizens who received a second booster of the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination had a 78 percent lower mortality rate from the disease than those who got one only, a study from Israel showed on Sunday.
The country's largest healthcare provider, Clalit Health Services, said the 40-day study included more than half a million people aged 60 to 100.
Some 58 percent of participants had received a second booster – or two shots in addition to the basic two-shot regimen. The remainder had received only one booster. Researchers recorded 92 deaths among the first group and 232 deaths among the second, smaller group.
"The main conclusion is that the second booster is lifesaving," said Ronen Arbel, Health Outcomes Researcher at Clalit and Sapir College.
The report was issued as a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed. The research excluded people who received rival Moderna's vaccine and those who had taken oral anti-COVID therapy.
Israeli health officials have put out a number of studies on vaccine efficacy throughout the pandemic that have impacted policymaking in other countries.
People buy dried fruits and nuts at a market ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, during the coronavirus pandemic in the Jordanian capital Amman, on April 23, 2020. (KHALIL MAZRAAWI / AFP)
Jordan
Jordan's Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh on Sunday issued measures to ease COVID-19 restrictions, the state-run Petra news agency reported.
The new measures permit indoor and outdoor gatherings in all forms, while face masks are no longer required in open places, it said.
Prayers are no longer restrained by physical distancing in mosques and places of worship, while worshippers are still obliged to wear face masks, it added.
Jordan's Health Ministry recorded Sunday 3,171 new COVID-19 cases, increasing the caseload to 1,692,485 in the country.
It reported 28 deaths, bringing the COVID-19 death toll to 14,031, according to a statement by the ministry.
Laos
The Lao Ministry of Health plans to offer fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccines to healthcare workers and people at risk of serious illness starting in April to shield vulnerable groups from the Omicron variant.
Booster shots will be used to ramp up levels of antibodies to the virus, which will reduce the risk of severe illness, the local daily Vientiane Times reported on Monday.
The fourth doses will be offered to frontline workers, people with immunodeficiency or chronic disease, and people over the age of 60, according to the report.
Additional vaccinations will also be rolled out in provinces that are heavily reliant on tourism or where infection rates are high.
The Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines will be offered to people who received their third dose at least three months ago.
Second in line for a fourth vaccination will be police, officials working at border crossings, diplomats, and incoming workers.
The next group to get booster shots will be people working in crowded places such as banks, tourism-related businesses and factories, followed by the general public.
A bus driver sanitizes the interior of a bus before passengers' boarding at Larkin bus station in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, Nov 29, 2021. ( VINCENT THIAN / AP)
Malaysia
Malaysia recorded 16,863 new COVID-19 infections as of midnight Sunday, bringing the total tally to 4,138,867, according to the health ministry.
The newly reported infections included 238 imported cases and 16,625 local transmissions, showed data released on the ministry's website.
A further 37 deaths have been reported from COVID-19, bringing the death toll to 34,751.
Mongolia
Mongolia's health ministry on Monday confirmed 69 new local COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 469,110.
Meanwhile, no new related deaths were reported in the past day, leaving the death toll unchanged at 2,108.
New Zealand
New Zealand reported 12,882 new community cases of COVID-19 on Monday, said the Ministry of Health in a statement.
Among the new community infections, 2,300 were recorded in the largest city Auckland. The rest of the cases were identified across the nation, including 2,119 in Canterbury, according to the ministry.
Samoa
Samoa reported on Monday 182 new community cases of COVID-19, bringing the total tally of active community cases in the Pacific island country to 1,239.
According to the newspaper Samoa Observer, Samoa's Ministry of Health data on Monday showed that about 97 percent of the total cases, or 1,203 cases, were reported in Upolu, the second largest island in Samoa, and the rest or 36 cases recorded in Savai'i, the largest island in Samoa.
The data also showed that the prevalence of COVID-19 infection in Samoa is significantly higher among the group of 15-35 years of age.
A notice warning people not to gather in groups larger than five persons as part of restrictions to hald the spread of the coronavirus is displayed at Raffles Place financial business district in Singapore on Jan 4, 2022. (ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP)
Singapore
Singapore reported 4,848 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the total tally to 1,072,005.
Of the new cases, 543 cases were detected through PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests and 4,305 through ART (antigen rapid test) tests, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health.
South Korea
South Korea reported 187,213 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight Sunday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 12,003,054, the health authorities said Monday.
The daily caseload was down from 318,130 recorded in the previous day due to less virus tests over the weekend, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
A man passes walks past a billboard on the coronavirus in Ho Chi Minh City on Dec 4, 2021. (NHAC NGUYEN / AFP)
Vietnam
Vietnam recorded 91,916 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, according to its Ministry of Health.
The new infections, logged in 61 localities nationwide, were all domestically transmitted.
Vietnamese capital Hanoi remained the epidemic hotspot with 10,252 new cases on Sunday, followed by the northern Bac Giang province with 3,997 cases and the northern Yen Bai province with 3,977 cases.
The newly reported infections brought the total tally to 9,011,473, with 42,306 deaths. Nationwide, 5,351,978 COVID-19 patients, or 59 percent of the infections, have so far recovered.