This photo taken on August 21, 2020 shows passengers wearing face masks as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus walking along a concourse at the departure area of Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok. (PHOTO / AFP)

ANKARA / SYDNEY / SEOUL / KATHMANDU / ISLAMABAD / DUBAI / JERUSALEM / CAIRO / YANGON / MUMBAI / ALMATY / GAZA / JAKARTA / MANILA / KUALA LUMPUR - Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Wednesday suggested that Thailand should consider allowing the limited entry of tourists from countries with low numbers of COVID-19 infections.

Prayut made the announcement after repeated calls from state and private sectors, stressing the need to "bring cash into the country."

The prime minister also said on Wednesday that he agreed that the Thai skies should open to limited foreign tourist arrivals "as the country needs oxygen to breathe for survival."

He said that state authorities have been working out appropriate measures to deal with tourist arrivals while, at the same time, ensuring public safety and deciding which provinces will open up first.

Prayut assured that his administration will not open the whole country for unlimited or unrestricted foreign arrivals, as there must be several measures put in place first.

"One important thing is that, if we do not do anything now, the economic situation will get worse. Many Thai businesses will shut down, employees will be laid off and the state coffer is drying up. Everyone has a family to look after and debts to pay," Prayut stressed. "The government does not have deep pockets to pay everyone during such financial distress."

He maintained that his government has been doing its utmost to ease the economic hardships.

"So try not to oppose whatever that the Government plans to do to ease the economic impacts," Prayut said.

Meanwhile, the head of Thai team in developing COVID-10 vaccine said in a press briefing on Wednesday that Thailand will delay human trials of the vaccine as a result of limited production capacity at overseas facilities in San Diego and Vancouver.

Nuns of the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Saint Teresa, wearing masks and face shields as precaution against the coronavirus distribute food to poor and homeless people in Kolkata, India, Aug 26, 2020. (BIKAS DAS / AP)

India 

More than 2 million Indian students will sit for admission tests to medical and engineering schools next week, the government said on Wednesday, despite growing concern that the move could fuel a jump in coronavirus infections.

India reported more than 60,000 infections, maintaining the world’s highest single-day caseload since August 7, a Reuters tally showed. With 3.2 million cases, it ranks after the United States and Brazil, though its 59,449 deaths are far fewer.

Now the government is pushing for a return to normalcy to lessen the economic pain, after having imposed a strict early lockdown of India’s 1.3 billion people in March.

ALSO READ: India's coronavirus toll becomes world's fourth largest

Afghanistan 

Afghanistan on Wednesday reported 42 newly-confirmed COVID-19 cases after health authorities conducted 511 tests within a day, the country's Ministry of Public Health said.

During the past 24 hours, 42 positive COVID-19 cases were recorded in six provinces of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, the ministry said in a statement.

Australia

Australia will boost defence spending by A$1 billion (US$716.80 million) to upgrade military facilities and offer additional paid employment to army reservists, as Canberra seeks to soften the economic blow of COVID-19.

In a fresh round of stimulus, Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday promised greater spending on defence in a bid to grow the country’s military and support 4,000 jobs.

Australian researchers hope to start human trials of a coronavirus antibody therapy in early 2021, while a large-scale trial of a vaccine could begin by the end of this year, scientists said on Wednesday.

The research targets came as the country’s virus hotspot, Victoria state, recorded its second-most deadly day of the pandemic with 24 deaths. Just 149 new cases were reported, well down from daily rises of more than 700 about three weeks ago.

Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute has made good progress in identifying the most potent antibodies that could neutralise the spike protein on the virus that causes COVID-19, stopping it from being able to enter human cells, researcher Wai-Hong Tam said.

Victoria’s government wants to extend a state of emergency by another year to combat the spread of the virus, allowing it to prolong or reimpose lockdowns over that period.

The move has alarmed critics of the state government, including members of the federal cabinet who say an extended state of emergency is undemocratic.

Almost 64 percent of Australia’s 549 deaths from COVID-19 have occurred among elderly residents of aged-care homes, which are overseen by the federal government.

Australia surpassed 25,000 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday. New South Wales state reported six new cases and Queensland reported one.

ALSO READ: Australia's state of Victoria sees 'stabilisation' in new virus cases

DPRK

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)’s leader Kim Jong-un has called for prevention efforts against the novel coronavirus and a typhoon, state news agency KCNA said on Wednesday.

An enlarged meeting of the politburo of the Workers Party took place amid a pandemic that is putting additional pressure on the DPRK‘s economy, battered by recent border closures and flood damage.

The meeting assessed “some defects in the state emergency anti-epidemic work for checking the inroads of the malignant virus”, KCNA said in a statement.

The DPRK has not reported any confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, but Kim said last month that the virus “could be said to have entered” the country and imposed a lockdown after a man was reported to have symptoms. Later test results on the man were inconclusive, according to the World Health Organisation.

Kim had this month lifted a three-week lockdown in the city of Kaesong after a suspected case of the coronavirus there.

Women wearing protective face masks to help prevent spread of the coronavirus walk through a shopping center, in Tehran, Iran, Aug 19, 2020. (EBRAHIM NOROOZI / AP)

Iran

Iran's death toll over COVID-19 climbed to 21,020 on Wednesday after an overnight registration of 119 new fatalities, Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education announced.

At her daily briefing, Sima Sadat Lari, the spokeswoman for the Iranian health ministry, confirmed 365,606 total novel coronavirus cases after 2,243 new infections in the past 24 hours were added.

Out of the new cases, 1,121 have been hospitalized, Lari said.

Indonesia

The administration of Indonesia's holiday island of Bali will start enforcing fines on people who do not wear face masks in the public as authorities are struggling to curb COVID-19 transmissions in the province.

Indonesia reported 2,306 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, taking its total number of cases to 160,165, data published on the country’s health ministry website showed.

The data also showed 86 more deaths related to the novel coronavirus, taking the total to 6,944.

Iraq

Iraq's Health Ministry reported 3,962 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily spike in infections in the region on Tuesday, bringing the total nationwide infections to 211,947.

It also reported 77 more fatalities, raising the death toll to 6,596, and 3,372 new recoveries, taking the tally of recoveries to 153,761.

Israel

Israel is advancing a new economic plan that will include increased grants for negative income tax recipients, the Prime Minister's Office said on Tuesday.

Negative income tax grants are already given by the state to low-income workers, in order to encourage participation in the labor market.

Currently, Israel's unemployment rate stands at 20.7 percent with more than 847,000 jobless people, compared to only 3.9 percent with 162,500 people unemployed just before the pandemic outbreak in the country in late February.

Israel's total COVID-19 infections climbed to 106,460 on Tuesday, with the addition of 1,988 new cases, the state's Ministry of Health said.

The death toll from the virus rose by 12 to 859, while the total number of recoveries reached 83,822, with 2,180 new recoveries, the ministry said.

READ MORE: Israel opens floating cinema for coronavirus-safe viewing

Japan

Japan on Wednesday confirmed 896 new daily COVID-19 infections, bringing the nation's cumulative total to 64,897 infections as infections in urban areas including the capital continue to rise.

In Tokyo's neighboring prefecture of Kanagawa, 85 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed, with the prefecture's tally now standing at 4,600 people.

The Tokyo metropolitan government, meanwhile, reported 236 new daily cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday.

Japan is considering how to make social-distancing rules more binding as it confronts a wave of coronavirus cases larger than the one that prompted a state of emergency in April-May, Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said.

Future emergency declarations could be targeted to specific areas or industries, said Nishimura, who heads the country’s virus response.

Jordan

Jordan reported 77 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily increase so far, bringing the tally of cases to 1,716, including 14 deaths, Health Minister Saad Jaber said at a press conference in Amman. 

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan has signed a deal to get supplies of Russia’s first potential COVID-19 vaccine once clinical trials are complete, the Central Asian nation’s government said on Wednesday.

The government did not say how many doses of the vaccine it planned to buy and at what price. It said the vaccine would be made available to at-risk Kazakh citizens free of charge.

The vaccine, called “Sputnik V” in homage to the world’s first satellite launched by the Soviet Union, has been hailed as safe and effective by Russian authorities and scientists following two months of small-scale human trials.

Kuwait

Kuwait reported 613 new COVID-19 cases and one more death, raising the tally of infections to 81,573 and the death toll to 519.

The Kuwaiti Health Ministry also announced the recovery of 477 more patients, raising the total recoveries in the country to 73,402.

Kyrgyzstan 

Kyrgyzstan reported on Wednesday 113 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total cases registered in the country since the outbreak of the pandemic to 43,358.

Deputy Minister of Health Nurbolot Usenbaev told a news briefing that among the new cases are four medical workers, taking the tally of contracted medical workers to 3,114.

The official said that the total number of people having recovered from the virus reached 37,217, after 292 new recoveries were recorded over the past day.

Lebanon

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Wednesday the country was at risk of losing its control over the country’s coronavirus outbreak after a spike in the number of cases following the massive explosion in Beirut on Aug 4.

Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan urged the Lebanese society to be highly aware of the dangers of the virus and take proper precautions to prevent the infection with the coronavirus.

Lebanon's number of COVID-19 infections increased on Tuesday by 532 cases to 13,687, as the death toll went up by 12 to 138.

Malaysia

Malaysia reported six new COVID-19 infections, bringing the national total to 9,291, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement that one of the new cases is imported and five more are local transmissions.

Myanmar

Myanmar government will temporarily close all high schools again after the country recently saw a drastic rise in the number of COVID-19 local transmission cases.

All high schools for the academic year of 2020-2021 will be temporarily shut down starting Thursday, Dr. Tin Maung Win, deputy director general of Basic Education Department under the Ministry of Education, told Xinhua on Wednesday.

Myanmar reported 70 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, the Southeast Asian nation’s biggest daily rise, amid a recent resurgence of the virus after weeks without confirmed domestic transmission.

Myanmar’s outbreaks has been relatively small compared with other countries in the region after it found its first case in March, with only six deaths and 574 infections reported so far.

Health authorities say detected among recent infections was a mutation now being reported in Malaysia, which has been found in Europe, North America and parts of Asia, and is thought to be more infectious.

The health ministry did not say where the 70 new cases were found. Most recent infections have been in Sittwe, the capital of conflict-torn Rakhine state, where authorities have imposed a lockdown, stay-at-home order and a curfew.

In a bid to stem the spread of the coronavirus, Myanmar has since late March closed its borders to all but returning citizens, who are required to undergo quarantine.

Nepal

Nepal's Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has made public a one-month schedule for regular and chartered international flights starting from Sept 2, nearly six months after international flights were suspended to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

However, according to the ministry, only Nepalis getting special permission from the Nepali government to come to Nepal, foreign diplomats and employees at foreign diplomatic missions in Nepal, representatives and employees of United Nations offices and development partners of Nepal, can enter Nepal from some selected countries and regions on these flights.

As per the flight schedule released by the ministry on Tuesday, one Nepali airline and one foreign airline have been allowed to conduct one international flight respectively on the first day of flight resumption.

The Nepal Airlines, Nepal's national flag carrier, has been allowed to fly on Kathmandu-Narita (Japan) route while Malaysia's Malindo Air has been allowed to fly on Kathmandu-Kuala Lumpur route on Sept 2.

Pakistan

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Pakistan has dropped from 10,188 to 9,031, the country's health ministry said Tuesday on its website.

According to the official statistics, 293,711 people were tested positive of the disease in Pakistan and out of which 278,425 recovered whereas 6,255 died of it, since February when the first person was tested positive of the disease in the country.

Palestine

Hamas-run Health Ministry on Wednesday recorded the first local fatality that infected with the novel coronavirus.

The ministry said in a press statement that "61-year-old Rabah Lubbad died as a result of his infection with the virus," adding that his condition was critical and "he was under artificial respiration."

Palestine recorded 585 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total infections to 26,162 in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, while the death toll rose to 150 with the addition of three new fatalities.

Papua New Guinea

An outbreak of COVID-19 in Papua New Guinea continued to spread, with the country's Western Province recording 18 new cases on Tuesday, all of which were associated with the Ok Tedi gold mine.

The country's total number of infections stood at 419, with four deaths linked to the virus and 140 cases associated with the gold mine cluster.

Qatar

Qatar's Health Ministry announced 232 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 117,498, including 194 deaths and 114,318 recoveries.

In this Aug 14, 2020 file photo, doctors attend a rally against the government medical policy in Seoul, the Republic of Korea. (AHN YOUNG-JOON / AP)

ROK

The Republic of Korea (ROK) ordered doctors in the Seoul area to return to work on Wednesday as they began a three-day strike in protest of several government proposals, including one to boost the number of doctors to deal with health crises like the coronavirus.

Trainee doctors have been staging ongoing walkouts, and thousands of additional doctors were due to stage a three-day strike starting on Wednesday.

The strikes come as the ROK battles one of its worst outbreaks of the coronavirus, with 320 new cases reported in the 24 hours to midnight Tuesday, the latest in more than a week and a half of triple-digit increases.

The walkouts on Wednesday forced the ROK’s five major general hospitals to limit their hours and delay scheduled surgeries, Yonhap news agency reported.

The ROK reported 320 more cases of the COVID-19 as of 0:00 am Wednesday local time compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 18,265.

The daily caseload rose above 300 in three days, continuing to grow in triple digits for 13 straight days.

The number of confirmed cases for the past 13 days reached 3,495 due to infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province.

Earlier in the week, the doctors reached an agreement with the government to continue to handle coronavirus patients, but failed to find a compromise on the broader issues.

Saudi Arabia

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Saudi Arabia came closer to 310,000 on Tuesday, while the tally in Turkey crossed the 260,000 mark, as the pandemic continued to rage in the Middle East. 

Saudi Health Ministry reported 1,114 new infections, pushing the tally of confirmed cases in the kingdom to 309,768. Meanwhile, the death toll climbed to 3,722 after 31 more fatalities were recorded, while the total recoveries rose to 283,932 after 1,044 more patients were cured.  

People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of coronavirus, walk in Ankara, Turkey, Aug 17, 2020. (BURHAN OZBILICI / AP)

Turkey

Turkey’s new coronavirus cases jumped on Tuesday to their highest level since mid-June at 1,502, according to Health Ministry data, prompting the government to impose measures to combat the spread of the pandemic.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter that 24 more people died from COVID-19, bringing the country’s death toll to 6,163.

Daily cases were last this high on June 15 - two weeks after Turkey lifted a partial lockdown - when the country logged 1,592 cases.

Responding to the surge, President Tayyip Erdogan announced that all state institutions may now implement “flexible working methods”, such as working out of the office or in shifts, according to a presidential decree published in the Official Gazette overnight.

Earlier, the Interior Ministry said it was banning certain events and celebrations, such as engagements and henna nights, in 14 provinces, including the capital, Ankara, in order to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

In a nationwide notice, it said weddings in the 14 provinces would be allowed to last a maximum of one hour, and any wedding dances, celebrations or parties were banned.

The Philippines

The Philippines’ health ministry on Wednesday reported 5,277 additional novel coronavirus infections, the highest daily increase in 12 days, and 99 more deaths.

In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed cases had risen to 202,361, more than 60% of which were reported in the past month, while deaths had increased to 3,137. The Philippines has the largest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia.

UAE

The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday announced 339 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 67,621.

The Ministry of Health and Prevention said 172 more patients have recovered from the virus, taking the tally of recoveries in the UAE to 58,754.

It also confirmed one more death, pushing the country's death toll to 377. 

Vietnam

Vietnam reported five new cases of COVID-19 infection on Wednesday, bringing its total confirmed cases to 1,034, along with two more deaths from the disease, according to the country's Ministry of Health.

All the five new cases have recently returned to the country from abroad and were quarantined upon arrival, according to the ministry, noting that their ages range from 21 to 58.