Tourists wearing face masks queue at the immigration counter upon arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang on Jan 29, 2020. (MOHD RASFAN / AFP)

SYDNEY / JERUSALEM / RAMALLAH / GAZA - Malaysia will block citizens of India, Indonesia and the Philippines from entering the country starting Monday.

The restrictions will affect those with long-term passes, students, expatriates, permanent residents as well as family members of Malaysians, Defense Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob told reporters in a televised press conference on Tuesday. All foreign tourists have been banned from entry since March.

Malaysia extended measures to curb the pandemic until the end of the year as the virus “is still actively spreading across the world,” Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a speech on Friday.

The Philippines is followed by Indonesia in having the largest number of coronavirus cases in Southeast Asia, while India is grappling with total infections nearing 4 million. Malaysia’s government will continue to monitor the situation and may widen the restrictions if virus cases rise in more countries, said Ismail.

Malaysia's infection tally stook at 9,354 as of Tuesday.

A resident wearing a face mask stands inside a restaurant as he awaits customers along an almost empty street in Navotas in suburban Manila on July 16, 2020. (PHOTO / AFP)

Philippines 

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is keeping the capital region under loose movement restrictions through September to spur economic activity while battling the region’s worst coronavirus outbreak.

Extending the general community quarantine for another month allows most businesses in Manila to continue operating though still at limited capacity, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said late Monday.

Public transportation will remain allowed at half capacity while critical government offices will continue operating, Roque said. Religious gatherings will be limited to 10 persons at a time.

The nation is seeking to boost an economy that’s expected to shrink by as much as 6.6 percent this year after plunging to recession last quarter.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines surged to 224,264 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 3,483 new daily cases on Tuesday.

Nepal 

The COVID-19 cases in Nepal crossed the 40,000-mark on Tuesday, as the number of cases more than doubled in a month, Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population said.

"With 1,069 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the total cases reached 40,529," a spokesperson for the ministry Jageshwor Gautam said.

The cases in the Himalayan country had surpassed 20,000 on Aug 1.

After the Nepali government loosened the nearly four-month lockdown by allowing most of the economic and social activities to resume, the number of cases has been also on the rise.

While the cases were mostly confined among the Nepali migrant workers, who had returned home from abroad, particularly from India before the lockdown was lifted, the cases are now spreading to several clusters of communities, according to the officials at the health ministry.

Jordan 

Nearly two million children returned to school in Jordan on Tuesday after a five month-absence, although authorities were forced to suspend teaching in some areas due to a spike in cases of COVID-19, officials said.

Several schools for Palestinian refugees and state schools were closed in some neighborhoods of the capital, Amman, after cases doubled in the city of 3 million in recent days.

Authorities hesitated in the last fortnight over reopening schools on Sept 1 after the country saw over 600 cases within just a week, its highest number of infections since March.

UNRWA, the main UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said at least 115,000 pupils returned to its schools on Tuesday.

Although the kingdom has fared better than most Middle Eastern countries with only 2,034 cases and just 15 deaths, the recent uptick has brought fears Jordan could be on the verge of a new wave.

People wearing masks walk on a bridge crossing Melbourne's Yarra River on July 23, 2020. (PHOTO / AFP)

Australia

Australia’s second-most populous state Victoria - the epicentre for COVID-19 infections in the country - on Tuesday reported the lowest one-day rise in deaths from the virus in two weeks as a second-wave outbreak eases.

Victoria said five people died from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, the lowest one-day rise in fatalities since Aug. 15, while 70 people tested positive for the novel coronavirus, a seven-week low.

The fall in the number of COVID-19 cases comes as the state capital Melbourne begins its fourth week of a six-week lockdown that sees residents confined to their homes, a nightly curfew imposed and large parts of the state economy ordered to close.

Australia has now recorded nearly 26,000 COVID-19 infections and 657 fatalities from the virus - far fewer than many other developed countries.

While the country has largely avoided high casualty numbers, restrictions to slow the spread of the virus have taken a significant toll on its economy.

ALSO READ: India is becoming the world's new virus epicenter

India 

India’s tally of coronavirus infections surged to nearly 3.7 million on Tuesday, as millions of masked students sat for college admission exams after the government refused to defer them.

India, the world’s third most affected country by the pandemic after the United States and Brazil, reported 69,921 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, the lowest in six days.

It took the overall number of cases to 3.69 million, while the death toll from COVID-19 rose by 819 to 65,288. On Sunday, India reported 78,761 new cases, the world’s biggest, single-day tally.

More than 2 million masked students filed into exam centres across India on Tuesday to take tests for admission to medical and engineering schools, with physical distancing norms, hand sanitisation stations and temperature checks in place.

The federal government had declined to defer the tests - already postponed twice this year - despite growing pressure from some students and opposition parties who feared rising infections as well as difficulty travelling to exam centres due to virus-linked curbs on transport.

In an effort to avert more serious economic damage, India recently relaxed more restrictions and has announced that urban metro trains can resume services from Sept 7.

India’s economy shrank by nearly a quarter in April-June, data showed on Monday, much more than forecast and pointing to longer than expected time for recovery.

In the southern city of Bengaluru, thousands of pubs were set to serve alcohol to customers starting from Tuesday following a nearly six-month gap, with strict social distancing norms and 50% seating capacity, a senior excise official told Reuters.

Israel

Schools and kindergartens in 23 cities and towns across Israel will remain closed on Tuesday, the opening day of the school year, due to high COVID-19 morbidity, Israel's Prime Minister's Office and Ministry of Health said in a joint statement on Monday night.

These are local authorities that have been declared "red" because of the high morbidity, according to a new governmental "traffic light" plan launched on Sunday.

Thus, the Israeli Corona Cabinet decided that as part of the restrictions to be imposed on these local authorities, schools and kindergartens in these locations will not reopen on Tuesday.

Under the new plan, each local authority was classified as red, orange, yellow or green, depending on the level of morbidity, and according to this division separate COVID-19 restrictions will be set.

Accordingly, in red areas, for example, gatherings are limited to 20 people outdoors and 10 people indoors, while in green areas gatherings of up to 250 people outside and 100 people indoors are allowed.

Israel Ministry of Health reported 2,576 new coronavirus cases on Monday, raising the total number in the country to 116,596.

Meanwhile, the death toll of the infectious disease reached 939 with 20 new fatalities, while the number of patients in serious condition dropped from 444 to 437, out of 891 patients currently hospitalized.

The number of recoveries increased to 95,009, with 2,213 new ones, while the number of active cases rose to 20,648, the ministry said.

Lebanon

Lebanon's number of COVID-19 infections increased on Monday by 438 cases to 17,308 while death toll went up by seven to 167, the Health Ministry reported.

Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan said on Monday that the cabinet allocated 10 million US dollars to be distributed among 10 public hospitals to help fight against COVID-19.

Lebanon's number of COVID-19 cases has been increasing remarkably on a daily basis due to the lack of proper precautionary measures by citizens.

Palestine

Palestine recorded the highest daily rise of COVID-19 cases on Monday after the outbreak of the deadly pandemic in the Palestinian territories in March, its health minister said.

Mai al-Kaila, the Palestinian health minister, said in a press statement that the health ministry recorded in the last 24 hours seven deaths and 875 new COVID-19 cases in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

She added that the seven deaths included "four in East Jerusalem, one in Ramallah, on in Qalqilia and one in Gaza."

"Although we saw the highest single-day rise of cases, the health ministry also recorded 1,031 recovered cases after conducting 4,433 tests," she said.

Al-Kaila noted that the health ministry found that 68.7 percent of the total infections had recovered, while 30.8 percent of the cases are receiving medical care.

Turkey

Turkish students started online schooling on Monday amid growing concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 infection as the daily cases are on the rise in Turkey.

The country mulls to start face-to-face education on Sept. 21 after evaluation of the pandemic situation, the Turkish education minister said on Monday.

"We will adopt distance education until Sept. 18. Works are continuing for the process to start on Sept. 21," Education Minister Ziya Selcuk told reporters.

Turkey confirmed 1,587 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the total diagnosed patients to 270,133, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

Meanwhile, 44 people died in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 6,370, he tweeted.

Laos

The Lao government will continue to suspend the issuing of tourist visas for anyone travelling from or transiting via countries where a COVID-19 outbreak is taking place, according to the latest notice from Lao Prime Minister's Office.

The Lao government updates the measures every month in accordance with the pandemic outbreak situation around the world and the circumstances in Laos.

According to a notice published by Lao Prime Minister's Office on Monday, which will be effective from Tuesday to September 30, authorities and people countrywide must strictly follow COVID-19 prevention measures determined by the National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control.

The United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday announced 541 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 70,231.

At the same time, 331 more patients have recovered from the virus, taking the tally of recoveries in the UAE to 60,931, the UAE's Ministry of Health and Prevention said.

It also confirmed two more deaths, pushing the country's death toll to 384.

The UAE was the first among the Gulf countries to report COVID-19 cases.

READ MORE: Virus: Thai PM orders closure of access points to Myanmar

Singapore

Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 41 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 56,812.

Of the new cases, seven are imported cases, three are community cases and the rest are linked with the dormitories of foreign workers.

Of the new cases, 85 percent are imported or linked to known cases or clusters, while the rest are pending contact tracing. All the new cases are asymptomatic, and were detected from proactive screening and surveillance.

On Monday, 72 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 55,658 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, the ministry said.

There are currently 78 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in critical condition at the intensive care unit.

Iraq

The Iraqi Health Ministry on Monday reported 3,757 new COVID-19 cases, as the total number of deaths reached 7,042.

A statement by the ministry said that the new cases brought the total nationwide infections to 234,934.

It also reported 83 deaths during the day, raising the death toll to 7,042, while 3,722 more patients recovered in the day, bringing the total number of recoveries to 176,602.

The new cases were recorded after 18,578 testing kits were used across the country during the day, and a total of 1,605,904 tests have been carried out since the outbreak of the disease, according to the statement.

South Korea

South Korea reported 235 more cases of the COVID-19 as of 0:00 a.m. Tuesday local time compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 20,182.

The daily caseload stayed below 300 for three days, but it continued to grow in triple digits since Aug. 14.

The number of confirmed cases for the past 19 days reached 5,412 owing to infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province linked to church services of Sarang Jeil Church in Seoul and a massive rally held in central Seoul on Aug. 15.

Of the new cases, 93 were Seoul residents and 60 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.

Thirteen were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 2,836.

No more death was confirmed, leaving the death toll at 324. The total fatality rate stood at 1.61 percent.

South Korea is gearing up for another year of record bond issuance as the government prepares to boost its budget by 8.5 percent in 2021, raising questions over the ability of markets to absorb the sales. 

The finance ministry will issue as much as 172.9 trillion won (US$145.6 billion) of sovereign debt in 2021, based on its budget proposal, according to An Il-whan, the second vice-minister of the finance.

The government has drafted a 555.8 trillion won budget bill for the new year, which is 8.9 trillion won more than this year’s spending plan including the three stimulus packages to combat the pandemic.

If approved by parliament, the proposal is set to push government debt to 46.7 percent of gross domestic product, a record ratio. That is expected to continue setting new highs in the years ahead to reach 58.3 percent by end-2024, the statement showed.

New Zealand

New Zealand confirmed 14 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, including nine imported cases in managed isolation facilities and five in the community.

The five new community cases are all clearly epidemiologically linked to cases that are either epidemiologically or genomically linked to the Auckland family cluster, according to the Ministry of Health.

Two cases are household contacts of previously reported cases, and the other three are all in a household that is linked to an existing case, said a ministry statement.

Of the nine cases in managed isolation facilities, five are in Christchurch, three are in Auckland and one is in Wellington. They are all in strict quarantine arrangements, it said.

There are currently 10 people with COVID-19 in New Zealand hospital, with two in ICU, it said.

There are 13 previously reported cases who are considered to have recovered on Tuesday, all community cases. With the 14 new cases, the total number of active cases in New Zealand is 132. Of those, 33 are imported cases in managed isolation facilities, and 99 are community cases.

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is now 1,401, which is the number reported to the World Health Organization.

Mongolia 

Mongolia has reported three new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking its total to 304, the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Tuesday.

"A total of 318 tests for COVID-19 were conducted across the country yesterday and three of them were positive," Amarjargal Ambaselmaa, head of the NCCD's Surveillance Department, said at a daily press conference.

The latest cases are Mongolian nationals who returned home from Kazakhstan on a chartered flight on Sunday, said Ambaselmaa.

All the confirmed cases were imported, and 295 people have recovered.

Bhutan 

The Bhutan government has begun a relaxation of the nationwide lockdown starting 5:00 a.m. local time on Tuesday.

The nationwide lockdown was imposed on Aug. 11 after COVID-19 cases were found outside of quarantine facility in Gelephu town, southern Bhutan and community transmissions were confirmed in Phuentsholing, a southern town bordering India.

Addressing the nation on late Monday night, Prime Minister Lotay Tshering said the lockdown measures have been successful.

He said the lockdown would be eased in a phased manner in a period of 10 days. Phase one starts from Tuesday, where people are allowed to do essential activities such as walking, cycling and shopping within their localities. People were urged to wear face masks.

Further easing will be carried out in phase two from Sept. 4 to 6, where movement of public transport within the districts will be allowed.

It will be followed by phase three, which allows movement of vehicles beyond the district with prior permission from police, said the prime minister.

He also said that all the relaxation initiatives should lead to a new normal that is conducive for the society to operate economic and livelihood activities while also ensuring safety of people's health.

The lifting of lockdown will not be applicable to southern border towns that are considered high-risk areas. People living in these towns will be issued movement cards, which allows them to move within the designated zones.

Thailand 

Two schools in the border area of Hua Hin tourist district in western Thailand have been temporarily closed amid fear of a possible spread of COVID-19 from inside Myanmar, said a senior government official on Tuesday.

The public schools, namely Anant School in Huay Sat Yai subdistrict and Baan Huay Khrai School in Bueng Nakhon subdistrict of Hua Hin district of Prachuap Khiri Khan province, which share border with Myanmar, have been closed from Sept. 1 until Sept. 7, according to provincial governor Panlop Singhaseni.

The temporary closure of the schools has followed confirmed reports that the parents of some of those schoolchildren had recently crossed natural borderlines to get inside Myanmar and then returned home in those subdistricts of Hua Hin, Panlop said.

Indonesia 

The COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 2,775 within one day to 177,571, with the death toll adding by 88 to 7,505, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

According to the ministry, 2,098 more people were discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 128,057.

The virus has spread to all the country's 34 provinces.

Specifically, within the past 24 hours, Jakarta recorded 901 new cases, East Java 350, West Java 215, Central Java 200 and Bali 160.

No more new positive cases were found in two provinces, namely Jambi and Bangka Belitung.