A small amount of people walk outside of Flinders Street Station, which would normally be busy with pedestrians during the morning peak hour in Australia's coronavirus hot spot Melbourne, July 16, 2020. (JAMES ROSS / AAP IMAGE VIA AP)

MELBOURNE / JERUSALEM / MUSCAT / DUBAI / DOHA / NEW DELHI / TOKYO / WELLINGTON / MANILA - People in Melbourne must now wear masks when leaving their homes as Victoria, Australia's second most-populous state, marked two weeks of triple-digit increases in new coronavirus infections on Sunday.

Melbournians not wearing face coverings will be fined A$200 (US$140), said Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews.

The state of emergency in Victoria will be extended through Aug 16, allowing for the enforcement of the mask ruling and other public health directions from the state’s chief health officer, according to the government.

Victoria, which has forced nearly 5 million people into a partial six-week lockdown on July 9, reported 363 new cases of the coronavirus on Sunday, after 217 cases the previous day.

"We're going to be wearing masks in Victoria and potentially in other parts of the country for a very long time," Andrews said during a televised briefing.

Australia has recorded about 11,800 cases of COVID-19. Three COVID-19 deaths were reported in Victoria on Sunday, bringing the total to 38 and raising Australia's death toll to 121.

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New South Wales reported 18 new infections Sunday, its highest in three months. The transmission rate in the state is higher than in Victoria, causing concerns.

About 60 people in Sydney face a fine of US$1,000 each after attending a party Saturday night and breaking the public health guidelines of no more than 20 visitors to a home, police said.

Meanwhile, New South Wales will further cap overseas arrivals in Sydney at 350 passengers a day from Monday after a new agreement was reached with the federal government, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan on Sunday reported 174 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, taking the country's tally to 35,463, the country's Ministry of Public Health said.

The death toll rose to 1,181 as another 17 fatalities were reported in the past 24 hours.

The number of recoveries increased by 361 to 23,641.

Armenia

Armenia on Saturday reported 461 new COVID-19 cases, pushing its tally to 34,462, according to the National Center for Disease Control.

Official data showed that 631 more recoveries were recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 23,123.

Meanwhile, 11 more deaths were registered over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 631.

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan on Saturday registered 497 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing its tally to 27,133, the country's operational headquarters for COVID-19 prevention and control said.

So far, 18,450 people have recovered, including 645 new recoveries that were registered over the past 24 hours, according to the headquarters.

Meanwhile, eight more deaths were recorded in the same period, raising the death toll to 349.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh reported 2,709 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, pushing its tally past 200,000, with nearly 2,600 deaths.

Nasima Sultana, a senior Health Ministry official, said "2,709 fresh COVID-19 cases were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 202,066".

According to her, another 34 deaths were reported, raising the death toll to 2,581.

The total number of recoveries rose by 1,373 to 110,098, according to Sultana.

India

India's federal health ministry said Sunday morning that 543 more deaths due to COVID-19 and 38,902 new cases were reported during the past 24 hours across the country, taking the death toll to 26,816 and overall tally to 1,077,618.

The daily rise in new cases was the highest ever reported so far.

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According to the ministry, 677,423 people have been discharged from hospitals so far while the number of active cases stood at 373,379.

On Saturday, Mumbai became the second Indian city after New Delhi to cross the grim milestone of 100,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 after 1,199 fresh cases were reported. Out of the total 100,178 cases reported in the city, 70,492 have recovered, 5,647 have died, and there were still 24,039 active cases.

The western state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is its political capital, was planning to roll-out the next phase of Mission Begin Again by relaxing lock-down norms and easing restriction on public transport earlier this month, but the spike in cases in India's financial capital and adjoining urban hubs had acted as a deterrent, a civic official said.

Meanwhile on Saturday, the ban on flight arrivals from six Indian cities to the eastern state of West Bengal's Kolkata airport was extended till July 31, officials said. "The restriction on arriving flights to Kolkata Airport from six cities viz Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Nagpur and Ahmedabad has been extended up to 31 July," reads a statement put out by Kolkata airport on social media.

Indonesia

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 1,639 within one day to 86,521, and the death toll climbed by 127 to 4,143, Achmad Yurianto, a health ministry official, said at a press conference here on Sunday.

According to him, another 2,133 patients were discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recoveries to 45,401.

In the past 24 hours, eight provinces, namely South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Bali and South Sulawesi, recorded high numbers of cases, Yurianto said.

No additional new cases were found in five provinces, namely Jambi, Bangka Belitung, West Kalimantan, North Kalimantan and East Nusa Tenggara.

Iran

Iranian health officials sought on Sunday to play down the president’s estimate that some 25 million people have been infected with the coronavirus, saying it was based on serological blood tests that measure exposure to the illness and that cannot be relied on to show the current state of disease.

The 25 million figure put forward by Rouhani on Saturday is nearly a third of the population and massively higher than the official number of COVID-19 cases. The official tally rose to 273,788 on Sunday, with 14,188 deaths, Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said.

According to a Health Ministry statement carried by Iranian news media, the figure given by the president was based on numbers produced by a deputy in the ministry.

Meanwhile, as cases started to surge again over the past weeks, Iran's coronavirus taskforce on Saturday reimposed more restrictions in the capital Tehran, including the closure of coffee shops and recreational centers, and a ban on religious, cultural and social gatherings as well as sport activities involving more than one person.

The measures will be in force for one week, according to a health official. The same restrictions were also reimposed in other cities with high-risk rates, as part of a targeted lockdown plan.

Israel

Israel's COVID-19 death toll has risen to 401 after nine more deaths were reported on Saturday, according to the Ministry of Health. It was the highest daily rise in deaths in the country since April 18, when 13 deaths were recorded then.

The ministry also reported 1,906 new coronavirus cases, the second-highest daily rise since the pandemic outbreak in the country, bringing the nation's tally to 49,365.

Hit by high unemployment, a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases and reimposed coronavirus curbs, Israelis have taken to the streets in almost daily demonstrations against the government.

On Saturday, hundreds gathered outside the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem and then marched through the streets, calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's resignation as police used water cannons to disperse the crowds. At least two people were arrested, police said.

In Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial hub, thousands gathered at a rally by the beach, demanding better state aid to businesses hurt by coronavirus restrictions and to people who have lost jobs or have been put on unpaid leave. 

Japan

Tokyo on Sunday confirmed 188 new coronavirus cases, broadcaster NHK reported, the first time in four days that the number of new cases fell below 200.

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On Saturday, the number of COVID-19 cases in Japan increased by 655 to reach 24,909, according to health authorities, hitting another record daily high in new cases since a nationwide state of emergency was lifted late in May. The total number of infections excludes 712 from the virus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined in Yokohama earlier in the year.

The nationwide death toll stood at 998 on Saturday, including 13 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Jordan

Jordan on Saturday reported one COVID-19 death and five new cases in the country.

The new figures pushed the death toll to 11 and the tally to 1,214, according to a statement by the Jordanian Health Ministry.

Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan on Saturday reported 1,264 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 25,047.

The republican headquarters on COVID-19 reported that among the new cases, 70 were medical workers, raising the tally of infected medical workers to 2,269, including 600 recoveries.

The headquarters also reported 73 more fatalities in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 858.

Kuwait

Kuwait on Saturday reported 683 new COVID-19 cases and three more deaths, raising the tally of infections to 58,904 and the death toll to 407, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry also announced the recovery of 639 more patients, raising the total recoveries in the country to 49,020.

Lebanon

Lebanon's number of COVID-19 infections increased on Saturday by 75 to 2,775 while death toll remained 40, the National News Agency reported.

Malaysia

Malaysia reported another 15 new COVID-19 infections on Sunday, bringing the national tally to 8,779.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that four cases were imported while the other 11 were transmitted locally.

Health authorities identified three new clusters: one at a construction site dormitory in Selangor state, one at a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur and one more among fishermen in the northern Borneo state of Sarawak.

Meanwhile, one more death was reported, with the victim having suffered from pre-exsited health problems prior to becoming infected, pushing the death toll to 123.

Mongolia

Mongolia has reported two more COVID-19 recoveries, taking its total number of recoveries to 213, the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Sunday.

Meanwhile, the country has tested 113 people for the virus in the last 24 hours, with all results returning negative, the NCCD said in a statement.

The Asian country has so far confirmed 287 COVID-19 cases, with no local transmissions or deaths. 

New Zealand

New Zealand reported three new cases of COVID-19, all imported, in managed isolation in New Zealand on Sunday, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

Two of Sunday's cases were in managed isolation in Waikato while the third was detected in Christchurch, it said.

The number of active cases in New Zealand currently stands at 25. 

New Zealand has reported a total of 1,203 confirmed cases to the World Health Organization.

Oman

Oman reported on Saturday 10 more deaths due to COVID-19, bringing the death toll in the country to 308.

According to a statement issued by the Health Ministry, 1,311 new cases were reported, pushing the total number of infections in the country to 65,504.

Another 1,322 patients have recovered, bringing the total recoveries to 42,772, according to the statement.

Palestine

Palestine recorded on Saturday six more COVID-19 deaths and 531 new infections in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a press statement.

The ministry has recorded 9,587 cases in total, including 62 deaths, 1,770 recoveries, and 7,755 active cases, according to the statement.

Ibrahim Milhem, the Palestinian government's spokesman, said that the government decided to extend the restrictions on movement among districts in the West Bank for another week from 8:00 pm to 6:00 am. He added that the government will impose a lockdown on the infected neighborhoods in the cities, villages and refugee camps to enable the medical preventive teams to prevent the spread of the virus.

Philippines

The number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines surged to 67,456 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,241 new cases on Sunday.

The DOH said that the number of recoveries further rose to 22,465 after 398 more patients recovered from the disease.

The death toll increased to 1,831 after 58 more deaths were reported, the DOH added.

Qatar

Qatar's Health Ministry on Saturday announced 410 new infections of COVID-19, increasing the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 106,308.

Some 426 more people have recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 103,023, while one more death was reported, raising the death toll to 154, the official Qatar News Agency reported, quoting a statement by the ministry.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia on Saturday reported 2,565 new coronavirus cases, increasing the total number of confirmed cases to 248,416.

There were 51,751 active cases, of which 2,182 were receiving treatment in the intensive care units, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The number of recoveries rose by 3,057 to 194,218 while the death toll increased by 40 to 2,447.

Singapore

Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 202 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 47,655.

Of the new cases, eight were imported, seven were cases of community transmission, and the rest were linked to the dormitories of foreign workers.

Altogether, 27 people have passed away from complications due to COVID-19 infection.

Singapore's DSO National Laboratories and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research have jointly developed a new COVID-19 test kit, reducing the COVID-19 testing time from four hours to less than two hours, the Straits Times reported on Saturday.

The new test kit, called Resolute, enables direct standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, which omits the processing of swab samples taken from patients and uses fewer raw materials than standard PCR test.

Turkey

Turkey's COVID-19 cases increased by 918 on Saturday to 218,717, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Saturday.

Another 17 people died in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 5,475, he added.

A total of 1,179 patients recovered in the last 24 hours, raising the total recoveries to 201,013 in Turkey since the outbreak, Koca said, noting that 1,231 patients were still being treated in the intensive care units and 394 are intubated.

UAE

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Saturday announced 289 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 56,711.

The number of recoveries rose by 469 to 48,917 while the death toll rose by one to 338, according to the ministry.

Yemen

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Yemen's government-controlled provinces increased to 1,581 on Saturday as five new cases were confirmed.

During the past 24 hours, 10 more recoveries were reported, bringing the number of recoveries in the government-controlled areas to 701, according to the Yemeni Health Ministry.

The death toll stood at 443, according to the ministry.