This undated photo shows Gilead's anti-viral drug remdesivir. (PHOTO / AFP)

SYDNEY / CARIO / DUBAI / ANKARA / SEOUL / TOKYO / COLOMBO - South Korea has added Gilead's anti-viral drug remdesivir to its coronavirus treatment guidelines in its first revision of recommendations since the outbreak began and urged caution in the use of the steroid therapy dexamethasone. 

South Korea, widely praised around the world for its handling of the pandemic without a full lockdown, has reported 12,602 coronavirus cases with 282 deaths.

Remdesivir is designed to hinder certain viruses, including the new coronavirus, from making copies of themselves and potentially overwhelming the body's immune system. The drug previously failed trials as an Ebola treatment.

South Korea reported 39 more cases of the COVID-19 compared to 24 hours ago as of 0:00 am Friday local time as the daily caseload in the country moved roughly in a range of 30 to 60 this month due to the continued small cluster infections. 

Australia

Australia will stick with plans to further ease coronavirus curbs, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday, despite a spike in infections in the second most populous state of Victoria. 

"There will be outbreaks and what matters is that we continue to build our capability to deal with those outbreaks," Morrison told a media briefing in Canberra, the capital. 

Australia deployed ambulances and mobile test centres in a testing blitz across the southeastern state after a renewed outbreak of the respiratory disease there.  On Friday, the state reported its tenth straight day of new cases in double digits.

As a byproduct of the spike in Victora, Australia's supermarket chains on Friday reintroduced purchase limits on toilet paper and other household items as the new outbreak set off a fresh round of panic-buying over fears of a new stay-at-home order.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka will re-open all museums and other cultural attractions from July 1 for local tourists after being shut for over three months due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country which has to date infected over 2,000 out of which over 1,600 have recovered, the Cultural Affairs Ministry said in a statement here Friday.

Quoted in local media reports, the ministry said the decision to open on July 1 was aimed at helping domestic tourism which had been severely hampered due to the virus and all archaeological sites, monuments, national museums and other sites would re-open.

Bangladesh

The number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in Bangladesh totaled over 130,000 while fatalities stood at 1,661 on Friday.

Senior Health Ministry official Nasima Sultana said in a briefing Friday afternoon that "3,868 new COVID-19 positive cases and 40 deaths including 31 men and 9 women were reported in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh."

"The number of confirmed infections in the country totaled 130,474 while fatalities stood at 1,661," she said.

India

Total COVID-19 deaths surpassed the 15,000-mark in India on Friday, reaching 15,301, as total cases reached 490,401, according to the latest data released by the federal health ministry.

As many as 14,821 new cases were detected on Monday, 14,933 on Tuesday, 15,968 on Wednesday and 16,922 on Thursday.

The ministry said 407 new deaths due to COVID-19, besides fresh 17,296 positive cases, were reported during the past 24 hours across the country, taking the number of deaths to 15,301 and total cases to 490,401.

However, spa, salons and beauty parlours will be allowed to function in India's western state of Maharashtra from Sunday with strict adherence to standard operating procedures three months after the pandemic lockdown. 

International commercial flights to and from India shall remain suspended until July 15, the country's civil aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) announced Friday.

"The competent authority has decided that scheduled international commercial passenger services to and from India shall remain suspended till July 15, 2020. This restriction shall not apply to international, all cargo operations and flights, specifically approved by DGCA," the order issued by DGCA said. "However, international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on case to case basis."  

Indonesia

Indonesia reported 1,240 new coronavirus infections on Friday, taking the total number of cases to 51,427. There were 63 more deaths recorded, with total fatalities now at 2,683, said health ministry official Achmad Yurianto.

Iran

Iran's confirmed novel coronavirus cases rose to 217,724 on Friday after an overnight registration of 2,628 new infections, according to official IRNA news agency.

During her daily briefing, Sima Sadat Lari, the spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said out of the new cases, 1,356 were hospitalized.

People leave a Costco outlet with a trolley full of toilet paper as fears of a second wave of COVID-19 have sparked a rush on some supermarket items in Melbourne on June 24, 2020. (WILLIAM WEST / AFP)

Iraq

Iraq reported 2,437 new coronavirus cases and 107 more fatalities, raising the total number of confirmed cases to 39,139 and the death toll to 1,437.

READ MORE: India calls in army to run facilities in Delhi as cases surge

Israel

The number of coronavirus cases in Israel rose to 22,400 on Thursday after 356 new ones were added, the Ministry of Health said. The death toll from the virus rose from 308 to 309, while the number of patients in serious condition increased from 46 to 47, out of 186 patients currently hospitalized.

 The number of recoveries reached 16,007, with 67 new ones, while the number of active cases increased to 6,084, the highest since May 3.

Earlier in the day, a special ministerial committee decided to impose restrictions on the coastal cities of Bat Yam and Ashdod given their high morbidity rates, according to a joint statement by the prime minister's office and the health ministry.

Japan

Japan's COVID-19 contact-tracing app has been downloaded more than 4 million times since its launch a week ago as the government seeks to head off a second wave of infections now that businesses and schools have reopened. 

Health ministry official Yasuyuki Sahara said while there was no target number for downloads, "we want to make as many people as possible to use this app". 

Apps such as this may be able to halt an epidemic if usage reaches 60% of the population, according to an Oxford University study.

Yuki Furuse, a professor at Kyoto University, said there's debate about whether usage has to be that high to be effective, but "the more people use the app, the more it would be effective for the outbreak response."

Kuwait

Kuwait on Friday reported 915 new COVID-19 cases and two more deaths, raising the tally of infections to 43,703 and the death toll to 341, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

The new cases included 492 Kuwaiti nationals and 423 residents of other nationalities, the statement said.

Currently, 9,393 patients are receiving treatment, including 162 in ICU, according to the statement.

The ministry also announced the recovery of 602 more patients, raising the total recoveries in the country to 33,969.

Kuwait on Thursday decided to start the second phase of restoring normal life. The second phase will begin on June 30 and will last for three weeks. 

Kyrgyzstan 

Kyrgyzstan reported 250 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, taking its total to 4,204, while its death toll stands at 43.

The country's deputy health minister Mademin Karataev told a news briefing that the cases were detected after medical personnel carried out tests on 4,212 samples in the last 24 hours.

He said that of the new cases, three are imported, while the other 47 are contacts of confirmed cases.

ALSO READ: Australia to deploy 1,000 troops to Victoria as infections surge

Lebanon

Lebanon's number of COVID-19 infections increased on Friday by 35 cases to 1,697 while the death toll remained unchanged at 33, the National News Agency reported. 

Head of the Health Parliamentary Committee Issam Araji warned about a possible increase in infections after the arrival of Lebanese expats starting on July 1, the date of the re-opening of the airport. 

"We have to be careful with arrivals from foreign countries as we expect 2,000 passengers to arrive at Lebanon per day," he said. 

Malayisa

Malaysia is in talks with Singapore and Brunei to create “green lanes” for less restricted travel, as governments around the world seek to reopen their borders without a resurgence in coronavirus cases.

Mongolia

Mongolia has reported three new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking its total to 219, the country's National Center for Communicable Disease (NCCD) said on Friday.

"A total of 171 tests for COVID-19 were conducted across the country on Thursday and three of them were positive," the NCCD's head Dulmaa Nyamkhuu told a daily press conference.

Nepal

Around two thirds of people who died due to COVID-19 in Nepal had pre-existing health conditions, Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population said.

According to the ministry data, as many as 17 people out of 26 who died of COVID-19 so far were also suffering from other health problems.

The number of deaths from COVID-19 in the Himalayan country has been on the rise since May along with a rapid rise in the number of cases. With new 434 cases in the last 24 hours, total COVID-19 cases in Nepal has reached 11,162 on Thursday.]

New Zealand

New Zealand reported one new case of COVID-19 on Friday in managed isolation, bringing the total active cases in the country to 14, according to the Ministry of Health.

All the 14 cases are in managed isolation or quarantine facilities, and there are no cases of community transmission, said a ministry statement.

Palestine

Palestine on Thursday announced 54 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the tally of coronavirus infections to 1,588.

Palestinian Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila said in a press statement that 41 coronavirus cases were reported in Hebron, 10 in Bethlehem, two in Ramallah and one in Nablus.

The new wave of infections hit the West Bank in mid-June. Hebron, the largest district in the West Bank, is becoming the new epicenter of COVID-19 pandemic in Palestine, with a majority of the cases reported there. It was followed by Nablus in the northern West Bank.

Qatar

Qatar's Health Ministry announced 1,060 new COVID-19 cases, increasing the total confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 91,838.

Meanwhile, the death toll rose to 106 after two more fatalities were recorded, while the number of recoveries increased to 74,544 after 1,461 more patients recovered.

A woman, wearing a protective face mask, sanitises a machine before a training session at a gym in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh on June 23, 2020, as the country begins to re-open following the lifting of a lockdown due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. (RANIA SANJAR / AFP)

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia registered 3,372 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total infections in the kingdom to 170,639, while the death toll soared to 1,428 after 41 more deaths were added.

The recoveries from the virus rose to 117,882 with 5,085 new recovered cases, the Saudi health ministry tweeted.

Singapore

Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 113 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 42,736.

Of the new cases, 96 percent are linked to known clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased, from an average of seven cases per day in the week before, to an average of four per day in the past week. The number of unlinked cases in the community has remained stable at an average of two per day in the past two weeks.

Thailand

Bangkok's main operator of public transit buses on Thursday announced it has scrapped all social distancing rules inside buses now that the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) had as of Thursday, reported a straight 31 day free of new local COVID-19 infection.

The Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) said it is relaxing social distancing requirements also to serve the new school term.

"From now on, companions and family members can sit close to one another in all BMTA-run buses," said Surachai Iamwachirakul, BMTA director-general.

The Philippines

The number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines soared to 34,073 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,006 more infections on Friday.

The DOH said in its bulletin that the number of recoveries further rose to 9,182 after 274 more patients have survived the disease.

The death toll also increased to 1,224 after 12 more patients have succumbed to the viral disease, the DOH added.

Turkey

Turkey reported 1,458 new coronavirus cases and 21 more fatalities in the past 24 hours, taking the tally of infections to 193,115 and the death toll to 5,046, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

Turkish Interior Ministry announced that the 65-year-olds and above will be allowed to travel for tourism purposes if they obtain permission from the authorities.

Turkey has gradually eased the stay-at-home order for the elderly people since June 1, when the government stepped up the normalization process after two-month lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19.

UAE

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced 430 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 46,563.

UAE's Ministry of Health and Prevention said 760 more patients fully recovered from the virus, taking the tally of the recoveries to 35,165. It also confirmed one more death, pushing up the country's death toll to 308.