People wearing face masks take pictures in front of the new section of Tokyo Disneyland on Sept 28, 2020 in Urayasu near Tokyo. (PHOTO / AFP)

SYDNEY / BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN / NEW DELHI / SYDNEY / JAKARTA / TEHRAN / BAGHDAD / KUALA LUMPUR / ULAN BATOR / WELLINGTON / SINGAPORE / SEOUL / COLOMBO / MALE / MANILA / ANKARA / HANOI - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday urged the nation to be extremely cautious amid signs of a resurgence of the novel coronavirus as cooler temperatures are seeing more people staying indoors.

"We have to watch the situation with a stronger sense of caution than before," Suga said in a session of a Diet committee.

The Japanese leader's comments came on the heels of new daily infections in Japan topping the 1,000-mark for the first time since Aug 21 the previous day, as Japan's health ministry said it had confirmed clusters of infections at more than 100 locations across Japan in the week through Monday.

This, the ministry said, was an increase of 60 percent, taking the total number of clusters to 103.

According to the ministry, the majority of clusters, at 29, were detected at company and government offices; 20 clusters meanwhile have been found at places serving food and drink.

Eighteen clusters have also been found at welfare facilities, the ministry said, adding that schools and medical facilities comprised the remainder of clusters detected.

The latest data from the ministry also revealed that clusters were confirmed at 341 sites across Japan between Oct 5 and Nov 2, which is the equivalent of 20 percent of the total number of clusters detected to date.

The clusters have not been confined to just urban areas either, experts said, with clusters of infections being detected in Japan's northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido as well as northeastern regions including Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures.

As the temperatures in these northern regions drop earlier than southern areas as winter rapidly approaches, more people are tending to stay indoors to keep warm, sometimes in premises or rooms that are not well ventilated.

Nationwide on Friday, 1,140 new daily COVID-19 infections were confirmed, marking the second straight day the figure has surpassed 1,000.

Japan's cumulative total now stands at 106,221, not including those related to a cruise ship that was quarantined near Tokyo earlier in the year.

A woman walks past the headquarters of the National Australia Bank (NAB) in Melbourne Nov 5, 2020. (William WEST / AFP)

Australia

The Australian state of Victoria recorded its 7th straight day with no new COVID-19 cases or deaths on Friday, paving the way for further easing of restrictions and domestic border reopening.

On Oct 28, the hardest-hit state by the COVID-19 pandemic saw restaurants, bars and retail businesses welcome back customers, and residents leave their homes for no particular reasons for the first time in almost four months.

Less than two weeks after exiting a strict lockdown, Victoria now has just 15 active cases, with the 14-day rolling average of new cases dropping to 1.3.

"These numbers are very impressive ... but we can't just pretend that seven days of zeros is like a vaccine against this virus," Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters on Friday. "Therefore we have to keep our guard up."

The next steps would include changes to the restrictions on the intrastate border between Melbourne and regional Victoria, the 25-km travel limit and expansions in restaurants and bars.

Moreover, the state will allow direct flights from New Zealand as soon as next Monday and will start to make up a plan to accept international flights more broadly.

As Victoria is safely coming out of lockdown, officials in the state of New South Wales (NSW) said they would reopen the border with Victoria from Nov 23, allowing residents to move freely among the states without quarantine.

Australia has recorded just over 27,600 novel coronavirus infections and 907 deaths, far fewer than many other developed countries.

India's COVID-19 tally reached 8,411,724 even as 47,638 new cases were registered across the country in the past 24 hours

Celltrion

South Korean biopharmaceutical firm Celltrion said its COVID-19 antibody drug, CT-P59, was well-tolerated without significant safety issues in the study population of its ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial.

“Trial results indicate treatment with CT-P59 resulted in at least 44 percent faster recovery time when compared with placebo,” the company said in a statement.

Celltrion added that no patients treated with CT-P59 in the study have so far required hospitalization or other antiviral therapy as a result of COVID-19.

Last month, the South Korean drugmaker said it received regulatory approval for Phase 3 clinical trials of the experimental COVID-19 treatment.

The company plans to seek conditional approval for CT-P59 for emergency use by the end of this year.

The treatment, the most advanced antibody drug in terms of research in South Korea, is directed against the surface of the coronavirus and designed to block it from locking on to human cells.

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Brunei

Brunei reported no new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, with the national tally of cases standing at 148.

It marked the 15th consecutive day without new cases since Oct. 22, when the country recorded an imported case.

India

India's COVID-19 tally reached 8,411,724 on Friday even as 47,638 new cases were registered across the country in the past 24 hours, said latest data released by the federal health ministry.

With 670 deaths since Thursday morning, the total death toll in the country due to the pandemic reached 124,985, added the ministry's data.

Indonesia

Indonesia reported 3,778 new coronavirus infections and 94 COVID-19 deaths on Friday, data from the country’s health ministry showed.

Indonesia’s totals of 429,574 cases and 14,442 deaths from the coronavirus are the highest in Southeast Asia.

Iran

Iran announced on Thursday 8,772 new COVID-19 infections confirmed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total confirmed cases to 654,936 in the country, official news agency IRNA reported.

Sima Sadat Lari, the spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said at her daily briefing that 406 people with COVID-19 lost their lives between Wednesday and Thursday, which takes the total death toll of the epidemic in the country to 36,985.

Iraq

The Iraqi Health Ministry reported on Thursday 3,701 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the nationwide infections to 489,571.

The ministry also reported 47 new deaths and 2,971 more recovered cases in the country, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 11,175 and the total recoveries to 420,206.

In this May 15, 2020 photo, a woman walks at Nijo fish market in Sapporo, Hokkaido prefecture. (STR / JIJI PRESS / AFP)

Japan

Hokkaido prefecture in northern Japan is considering raising its coronavirus alert to the third-highest level after reporting a record number of cases Thursday, public broadcaster NHK reported, without attribution. Hokkaido confirmed a record 119 new cases on Thursday.

After battling with the virus in spring, Japan already faced another surge in the summer, peaking in August with nearly 1,600 infections a day. The country managed to cut that level to around a third via limited, regional measures that included shutting bars early.

Mongolia

Mongolia recorded three new COVID-19 cases in last 24 hours, including a nurse who treats COVID-19 patients, the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Friday.

The nurse contracted the virus while treating COVID-19 patients, said Dulmaa Nyamkhuu, head of the NCCD, at a press conference, adding that the remaining two cases are Belarusian transport drivers, aged 30 and 48, who entered Mongolia recently.

This is the first positive case for health care staff in the country. All previous cases were imported.

Mongolia has recorded 356 confirmed cases with 314 recoveries, and has not seen a single COVID-related death so far.

New Zealand

New Zealand reported one new case of COVID-19 in managed isolation and no new community cases on Friday.

The case arrived from Singapore on Oct. 31 and has been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility, according to the Ministry of Health.

Twenty-four previously reported cases are now considered to have recovered, bringing the total number of active cases to 44. The total number of confirmed cases is 1,618, said a ministry statement.

Visitors pose beside a Doraemon figure from Doraemon's Time-Travelling Adventures exhibition at the National Museum in Singapore on Nov 2, 2020. (ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP)

Singapore

Singapore reported seven COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the country's total to 58,043, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

Of the new cases, one is locally transmitted community case, and there are no new cases in the dormitories.

There are also six imported cases, who had already been placed on Stay-Home Notice (SHN) upon arrival in Singapore.

Among the new cases, six are asymptomatic, and were detected from the proactive screening and surveillance, while one was symptomatic.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has remained low, with a total of two cases in the past week. Both cases are currently unlinked, said the press release.

South Korea

Ten more US soldiers in South Korea tested positive for COVID-19, the US Forces Korea (USFK) said Friday.

The USFK said in a statement that 10 service members were confirmed with COVID-19 after arriving in South Korea between Oct 29 and Nov 3.

Nine service members arrived at Osan Air Base on US government-chartered flights from the United States on Oct 29 and Nov 2 and Nov 3. The Osan Air Base is located in Pyeongtaek, 70 km south of Seoul.

One service member arrived at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, on international commercial flights on Nov 2.

South Korea reported 145 more cases of the COVID-19 as of 0:00 am Friday local time compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 27,195.

The daily caseload hovered above 100 for the third consecutive day due to small cluster infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province as well as imported cases.

Of the new cases, 38 were Seoul residents and 34 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.

Twenty-eight were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 3,890.

One more death was confirmed, leaving the death toll at 476. The total fatality rate stood at 1.75 percent.

READ MORE: Japan allows taxi drivers to refuse passengers not wearing masks

Sri Lanka

The number of COVID-19 deaths in Sri Lanka rose to 29 on Thursday after five people died from the infection, the highest deaths reported in the island country in a single day, health ministry statistics showed.

According to the government information department, four of the five new victims were residents of capital Colombo.

Sri Lanka's COVID-19 patient count rose to 12,400 by Thursday evening after 231 new patients were detected during the day, the health ministry said.

The Maldives

The Maldives has extended the State of Public Health Emergency until Dec. 5 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, local media reported on Friday.

State-owned PSM News, citing a circular signed by Health Minister Ahmed Naseem, reported that the state of health emergency initially declared on March 12 will be extended until Dec 5 due to the ongoing risk of COVID-19.

A total of 71 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the country on Thursday, raising the total case count to 11,893, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

The Philippines

The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 2,092 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection on Friday, bringing the total number in the country to 391,809.

The DOH said 462 more patients recovered, raising the total number of recoveries to 349,974. The death toll climbed to 7,461 after 52 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH added.

In this Oct 25, 2020 photo, people wearing face masks walk near the Galata bridge, in Istanbul, Turkey. (YASIN AKGUL / AFP)

Turkey

Turkey reported 2,311 new COVID-19 patients on Thursday, raising the tally in the country to 386,820.

In addition, 81 people died in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 10,639, according to its Health Ministry.

Vietnam

Vietnam will stick to its strategy of containing COVID-19 rather than rush to secure a supply of a vaccine that could be expensive and potentially risky, the head of the country’s coronavirus task force said on Friday.

Through months of aggressive mass testing, military-run centralised quarantine and early border closures, Vietnam has kept its coronavirus tally to just 1,210 cases and gone over two months without community transmission.

Just 35 people have died from COVID-19 in Vietnam, according to official data, with the country widely praised for its decisive response to quelling outbreaks.

Malaysia 

Malaysia reported 1,755 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the biggest daily rise since the start of the pandemic, taking the country's tally so far to 38,189 infections.

The Southeast Asian country also recorded two new fatalities, raising the death toll from the pandemic to 279.

Malaysia’s government will propose to raise by 20 billion ringgit (US$4.84 billion) the ceiling of a newly established fund to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said on Friday.

The move will increase the size of the COVID-19 fund to 65 billion ringgit, to fund aid packages and the needs of frontline workers and future procurement of vaccines, Tengku Zafrul said when presenting the government’s 2021 Budget.

Myanmar 

The number of COVID-19 cases has risen to 59,277 in Myanmar on Friday, according to a release from the Ministry of Health and Sports.

A total of 1,342 new cases were reported, with 24 new deaths in the past 24 hours, the release said.

A total of 765,399 samples have been tested for the disease as of Friday since the disease was first detected in Myanmar on March 23 this year.