A PVR Cinemas employee wearing a face shield, gloves and a facemask, participates in a sanitisation work as part of preparations for a possible reopening amid concerns over the spread of the COVID-19, in New Delhi on July 31, 2020. (PHOTO / AFP)
MELBOURNE / BANGKOK / WELLINGTON / SEOUL - India, the latest epicenter of the pandemic, reported 97,570 new cases, another daily global record, while deaths surpassed 1,000 for an 11th consecutive day.
The epidemic is surging across the South Asian nation at a record pace, as it moves beyond the cities to the country’s vast hinterlands. India now has the world’s second-largest number of infections after the U.S., with a total of 4.66 million. India also has the highest death toll after U.S. and Brazil, with fatalities surpassing 77,000.
Customers dine at an izakaya restaurant built under railway tracks in Tokyo, Japan, on Sept 8, 2020. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)
Japan
Japan is preparing to relax restrictions on attendance numbers for events including professional sports games, according to Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura.
For professional baseball games and soccer matches, the government is considering eliminating the current restriction of no more than 5,000 attendees and replacing it with an up to 50 percent capacity rule, the Yomiuri reported on Saturday
For professional baseball games and soccer matches, the government is considering eliminating the current restriction of no more than 5,000 attendees and replacing it with an up to 50 percent capacity rule, the Yomiuri reported on Saturday.
The government is also considering adding Tokyo to a national tourism campaign from Oct 1 to promote travel, Nishimura said late Friday. Tokyo had been excluded from the initiative that offers discounts on travel after the capital saw a spike in coronavirus infections during the summer, but cases have since fallen.
The moves are the latest by Japan to ease restrictions aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19, as the recent wave of infections subsides and the government seeks to further open the economy.
Tokyo on Thursday lowered its virus alert one notch from what had been the highest level. The city on Sept 15 plans to end restrictions on operating hours for bars and restaurants, allowing them to stay open longer.
Japan is also moving toward a gradual opening of its borders, with the government announcing Friday that Singapore and Japan will begin a reciprocal green lane for business and official travel on Sept 18.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, widely expected to become prime minister next week, said on Saturday he will consider topping up payouts to households and companies to cushion the economic blow from the COVID-19 pandemic deepens.
He also repeated that Japan must focus on reviving the economy before considering ways to fix its tattered finances, ruling out another increase in the national sales hike for another decade.
Australia
Deaths related to the novel coronavirus in Australia reached 803 on Saturday, but new daily infections in the country’s largest hot spot continued to fall.
Victoria state, the epicenter of the outbreak, reported six new deaths related to the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, bringing its total to 716, or more than 90% of all deaths in Australia.
However, new cases in the country’s second-most populous state continued to fall from a peak of more than 700 in a single day in early August. It reported 37 new cases on Saturday, its lowest since late June.
The state, home to one-quarter of Australia’s 25 million people, now accounts for about 75% of the country’s more than 26,500 COVID-19 cases and its capital, Melbourne, has been under a strict lockdown for weeks.
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The lockdown, which was initially to end on Sunday, has been extended for another two weeks.
Neighboring New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, reported six new cases. There have been isolated cases in Queensland in recent weeks, but the virus has been effectively eliminated in other states and territories.
Australia has fared better than many other countries in managing the health crisis and a subsequent economic slump, thanks to swift measures and substantial government financial support.
Thailand
Thai health authorities on Friday confirmed another coronavirus infection had been detected in the country, in an Uzbek professional soccer player, eight days after the virus resurfaced following a more than three-month absence.
The man was positive after a mandatory pre-match test on Tuesday, despite having completed quarantine on Aug 27 after three prior negative tests, health officials told a news conference. The man, 29, arrived in Thailand on Aug. 13.
Yong Poovorawan, a virology expert from Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, said the virus incubation period in the man would have been longer than 14 days and it was unlikely to have been domestically transmitted.
“I believe he was infected abroad,” Yong said.
By sealing off the country to all but returning Thai nationals and approved foreigners, and requiring all arrivals to quarantine, Thailand has kept coronavirus cases to just 3,461, the vast majority of which have recovered. The country has reported 58 deaths.
It had been more than 100 days without a domestic infection until a mysterious case appeared in Bangkok last week, with no travel history or known exposure to the virus.
Authorities have since tested hundreds of people who may have come in contact with the man, a DJ who was recently imprisoned.
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There were 43 other people potentially exposed to the Uzbek soccer player but all had tested negative for the virus and were undergoing quarantine, said Sophon Iamsirithaworn, director of Bureau of General Communicable Diseases, adding 27 more individuals would be tested.
Israel
Israel will enter a second coronavirus lockdown, becoming the only developed country to shut down again nationwide after a botched reopening of the economy sent infections soaring.
An inner cabinet of ministers late Thursday approved a two-week, full-fledged lockdown, to be followed by two more weeks of strict restrictions on movement and economic activity. After that, if the situation improves, limitations will be applied only to communities with large outbreaks. Details, such as the start date, are to be submitted to the full cabinet for final approval Sunday.
Israel's Ministry of Health reported 3,038 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing the total number in the country to 148,564.
The death toll rose to 1,090, with 13 new fatalities, while the number of patients in serious condition remained unchanged at 486, out of 979 patients currently hospitalized.
The number of recoveries rose to 111,728, with 1,786 new ones, while the number of active cases increased to 35,740.
New Zealand
New Zealand reported two community cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, said the Ministry of Health in a statement.
Both new cases were epidemiologically linked to the existing cluster in west Auckland, said the ministry.
With Saturday's two new cases and eight additional recovered cases, the total number of active cases in New Zealand was 108. Of those, 38 were imported cases, and 70 were community cases, according to the ministry statement.
There are currently three people in hospital with COVID-19, including two in intensive care units, said the ministry.
The total number of confirmed cases reached 1,444, which was the number New Zealand reported to the World Health Organization.
Laboratories across New Zealand have conducted 8,838 tests, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 857,258, according to the ministry.
New Zealand will remain at COVID-19 Alert Level 2 until Sept. 16, with extra restrictions in place for its largest city Auckland. A decision will be made by the New Zealand government on Monday on the new Alert Level in the country.
South Korea
South Korea reported 136 more cases of the COVID-19 as of midnight Saturday local time compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 22,055.
The daily caseload stayed below 200 for 10 straight days, but it continued to grow in triple digits since Aug 14.
It was attributed to cluster infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province linked to church services and a massive rally held in central Seoul on Aug. 15.
Of the new cases, 50 were Seoul residents and 28 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.
Eighteen were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 2,981.
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Five more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 355. The total fatality rate stood at 1.61 percent.
A total of 413 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 18,029. The total recovery rate was 81.75 percent.
The United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday announced 931 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 77,842.
And 517 more patients have recovered from the virus, taking the tally of recoveries in the UAE to 68,462, UAE's Ministry of Health and Prevention said.
It has reported no death from COVID-19 during the past 24 hours. The nationwide death toll stands at 398.
Jordan
Jordan on Friday reported 206 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily number of new cases since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country, bringing the tally to 2,945 with 21 deaths.
A total of 18,000 random virus tests were conducted on Friday, bringing the cumulative number of coronavirus tests administered to 959,025, according to a statement by the Health Ministry.
Also Friday, Nathir Obeidat, spokesperson of the National Committee to combat COVID-19, said the country has entered into "the community transmission stage," adding that the number of infections is expected to increase during the upcoming period.
He said Jordan can flatten the curve by taking some measures and studies are underway for alternative plans, according to the statement.
Lebanon
Lebanon's number of COVID-19 infections increased on Friday by 546 to 22,983, while the death toll went up by 10 to 229, the Health Ministry reported.
The Lebanese Health Ministry has previously announced that it lost control over the virus while urging people to take proper precautionary measures to protect themselves from COVID-19.
The ministry reiterated occasionally its call for people to wear masks and use disinfectants in public places to restrict the spread of the virus.
Nepal
The Nepali government on Friday reported the record high single day spike in COVID-19 cases of 1,454 in the last 24 hours.
The last record high number of daily COVID-19 cases was observed on Sept. 4 with 1,354 new infections in a day.
"With the new infections, total COVID-19 cases in Nepal reached 51,919," said Jageshwor Gautam, spokesperson at the Ministry of Health and Population at a press meet on Friday.
The total coronavirus cases in Nepal surpassed 50,000 on Thursday.
Iraq
The Iraqi health ministry on Friday reported 4,254 new COVID-19, bringing the total nationwide infections to 282,672.
The ministry also reported 67 more deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 7,881 in the country.
It also said that 3,579 more patients recovered in the day, bringing the total number of recoveries to 217,396.
A total of 1,864,099 tests have been carried out across the country since the outbreak of the disease, with 23,186 done during the day, according to the statement.
Singapore
Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 86 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 57,315.
Of the new cases, 13 are imported cases, none is community case and the rest are linked with the dormitories of foreign workers.
On Friday, 49 more patients have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 56,607 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, the ministry said.
There are currently 49 confirmed cases who are still in hospital. Of these, most are stable or improving, and none is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
Myanmar
One more COVID-19 patient was pronounced dead, bringing the death toll to 15 in total so far, according to a release from the Health and Sports Ministry on Saturday.
A 32-year-old female who recently tested for COVID-19 died of acute respiratory failure due to severe pneumonia and kidney failure due to the underlying Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) disease on Friday evening, the release said.
Meanwhile, 23 new positive cases of COVID-19 were reported on Saturday morning and the number of COVID-19 infections has risen to 2,445 so far.
Regionally, Yangon region accounts for over 50 percent of the total infections with 1,394 cases while Kayah state is seeing no infection case as of Saturday morning.
Indonesia
Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo has called on Jakarta’s administration to analyze the potential impact of re-imposing large-scale social distancing measures, The Jakarta Post reported Friday.
“We need to calculate how pulling the emergency brake will affect people’s activities,” he was quoted as saying. The Indonesian capital is planning to re-impose social distancing rules for two weeks from Monday, Governor Anies Baswedan was cited as saying by Kompas.com.
The country recorded 3,737 confirmed new cases on Friday, bringing the total to 210,940. The death toll reached 8,544, with 88 people succumbing to the disease on Friday, according to The National Disaster Management Agency. Jakarta accounted for about 25% of the nation’s confirmed infections, and has registered 1,368 fatalities.
The Philippines
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines surged to 257,863 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 4,935 new daily cases on Saturday.
The DOH said that the number of recoveries also rose to 187,116 after it reported that 659 more patients have survived the disease.
The DOH added that 186 more patients have succumbed to the viral disease, bringing the death toll to 4,292.
Metro Manila topped the five regions or provinces with the highest number of daily confirmed cases reported on Saturday with 2,619, followed by Cavite province, south of Manila, 343; Laguna province, south of Manila, 258; Rizal province, east of Manila, 227; and Negros Occidental province in the central Philippines, 177.
Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade said the government would ease physical distancing rules in public transport starting on Monday to accommodate more commuters as the lockdown measures are relaxed and the economy reopens.
The World Health Organization advised people to keep a distance of at least one meter from each other and avoid spending time in crowded places or in groups, saying physical distancing.
