Pedestrians cross a street in Tokyo's Shinjuku area on Nov 29, 2020. (PHOTO  / AFP）

SEOUL / RAMALLAH / BAGHDAD / KATHMANDU / TOKYO - The confirmed COVID-19 cases in Japan increased by 2,011 to reach 151,012 as of Tuesday night, according to the latest figures from the health ministry and local authorities.

The death toll in Japan from the pneumonia-causing virus currently stands at 2,198, with 33 new fatalities announced Tuesday, hitting a record-high since the onset of the outbreak. 

Japan is loosening regulations on part-time work for foreigners stuck in the country due to the novel coronavirus and having trouble supporting themselves, the government said on Tuesday.

While temporary, the measures - which take effect from Tuesday - are a liberalisation of labour curbs on foreigners in an aging economy suffering from huge shortages of workers but where the ruling party has been reluctant to embrace a full-fledged immigration reform.

A number of foreigners in Japan, either as students or on other visa statuses, have been stuck in Japan longer than expected due to the coronavirus pandemic as a result of things such as strict quarantine rules in their home nations or a lack of plane flights.

The new rules will allow people with 90 day short-stay permits to renew their permits and receive permission to work up to 28 hours a week, while technical trainees will be able to change their visas to a “specified activity” work permit for six months, the Justice Ministry said on its website.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed a new state minister for COVID-19 prevention, as the virus has affected over 23,000 people and caused 118 deaths, local media reported Tuesday.

A statement released by the President's Office said President Rajapaksa had appointed Dr. Sudarshani Fernandopulle as the state minister of Primary Health Services, Pandemics and COVID Prevention, a new portfolio created in the government.

"President is of the view that the development and expansion of primary health care services is vital to ensure a high level of health care for the people, especially in rural areas," the statement said.

With the spread of COVID-19, President Rajapaksa decided that a policy and practical mechanism should be put in place to preemptively identify and control the spread of pandemics and the new ministry was created to meet this goal, the statement added.

Dr. Fernandopulle was previously the state minister of Prison Reforms and Prisoners Rehabilitation.

Till Tuesday morning, Sri Lanka recorded 23,987 COVID-19 patients out of which 17,506 patients had been discharged, bringing down the active patient count to 6,309.

Some areas of capital Colombo are under a lockdown due to the spread of the virus.

Bangladesh 

Bangladesh reported 2,293 new COVID-19 cases and 31 new deaths on Tuesday, making the tally at 467,225 and the death toll at 6,675, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said.

The official data showed that 15,501 samples were tested in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh.

The total number of recovered patients in the country stood at 383,224 including 2,513 new recoveries on Tuesday, said the DGHS.

India

India's Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has deployed a blockchain-based digital supply chain platform to power the Indian government's project to scale up indigenous COVID-19 diagnostic test-kit production capacity to a million test kits a day, TCS said in a statement on Tuesday.

India's Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) project aims to build a robust, scalable supply-chain ecosystem of small and medium enterprises capable of producing large quantities of reagents and other components needed for conducting a diagnostic test for COVID-19.

The TCS Data Marketplace solution will facilitate, standardized, controlled data exchanges across ecosystem participants with the necessary security and privacy protection, using blockchain at the back-end to ensure the immutability of audit logs.

India has so far recorded 9,462,809 confirmed cases and 137,621 deaths.  

Afghanistan 

The death toll of COVID-19 in Afghanistan has increased to 1,800 after 21 patients lost their lives within the past 24 hours, the country's Ministry of Public Health said on Tuesday.

The ministry also confirmed 219 new cases during the period, bringing the number of infected people across the country to 46,717, including 8,010 active cases, the ministry said in a statement.

Malaysia

Malaysia reported 1,472 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the national total to 67,169.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that five of the new cases were imported and 1,467 cases were local transmissions.

Students wearing face masks sit spaced apart during a trial run of a class with COVID-19 protocol at the Nurul Amal Islamic school in Tangerang, Indonesia, Nov 23, 2020. (TATAN SYUFLANA / AP)

Indonesia

Anies Baswedan, the governor of the Indonesian capital Jakarta, said on Tuesday he had tested positive for COVID-19, as the world’s fourth most populous country struggles to contain a spike in the number of infections.

The 51-year-old governor of Southeast Asia’s biggest city is among a number of politicians and officials to contract the virus. Indonesia’s transportation and religious affairs ministers have previously been treated for the virus.

The COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 5,092 to 543,975, with the death toll adding by 136 to 17,081, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

Jakarta, a bustling megacity, has also recorded new record highs in infections over the past month, with an average of around 1,240 cases per day in the past week.

The Philippines 

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte extended the existing movement restrictions in the capital region through year-end, while keeping most of the country under the most lenient status.

Duterte approved the recommendation of the inter-agency coronavirus task force to place Metro Manila and six other areas with virus clusters under general community quarantine (GCQ) until the end of this year.

In a public address aired on Monday night, Duterte urged people to wear face coverings and keep a distance, warning that some countries are already experiencing the third wave of COVID-19 infection.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano said minors living in areas under GCQ would finally be allowed to go out of their homes in December provided that they are accompanied by adults and complying with the minimum health standards.

He said ordinances will be issued by the local government units to implement the changes in age limits.

Ano and National Task Force against COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez encouraged everyone to avoid big gatherings to celebrate the holidays and limit the Christmas events to their immediate family.

Christmas is marked by big celebrations in the Philippines, where around 80 percent of the population are Catholic.

Aside from Metro Manila, some other provinces were also placed under GCQ, including the provinces of Batangas in the main Luzon island; Lanao del Sur, and Davao del Norte in the southern Philippines; and the cities of Iloilo, Tacloban in the central Philippines; and the cities of Iligan and Davao City in the southern Philippines.

The rest of the country will be under a more relaxed modified general community quarantine during the same period, he added.

The Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines on Tuesday reported 1,298 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the country's total tally to 432,925.

The DOH said that 135 more patients recovered, raising the total number of recoveries to 398,782. The death toll climbed to 8,418 after 27 more patients died from the coronavirus epidemic.

South Korea

South Korea reported 451 more cases of COVID-19 as of 0:00 am Tuesday local time compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 34,652.

The daily caseload stayed below 500 for three straight days, but it grew in triple digits for 24 days running due to small cluster infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province as well as imported cases.

Of the new cases, 153 were Seoul residents and 86 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.

Thirty-one were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 4,581.

No more death was confirmed, leaving the death toll at 526. The total fatality rate stood at 1.52 percent.

A total of 260 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 27,885. The total recovery rate was 80.47 percent.

Syria

The Syrian Health Ministry on Monday instructed hospitals and medical centers to move to the emergency plan to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, state news agency SANA reported.

The plan includes expanding the hospitals' sectors in favor of COVID-19 patients and supporting the hospitals with trained teams to accept all suspects cases.

The ministry also called for applying the protocol to call in more medical teams in case of emergency and operate the hospitals at maximum capacity.

The ministry reported 90 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the overall number of infections since March to 7,887, including 3,560 recoveries and 417 deaths. 

ALSO READ: Virus: Turkey's curfew fails to contain surging second wave

In this file photo, Sri Lankan schoolgirls sit in a classroom wearing protective masks at a school in Colombo. (PHOTO / AFP)

Turkey

Iran announced on Tuesday 13,881 new COVID-19 cases confirmed in the past 24 hours, raising to 975,951 the total number of infections registered in the country.

A total of 2,237 of the newly infected had to be hospitalized, Sima Sadat Lari, the spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said at her daily briefing.

Turkey reported 31,219 new COVID-19 infections on Monday, including 6,514 symptomatic patients, said Turkish Health Ministry. Meanwhile, Iran's total number of confirmed cases surpassed 960,000.

Turkey said the total number of symptomatic COVID-19 patients in the country stood at 500,865, and the death toll from the coronavirus rose by 188 to 13,746, while the total recoveries climbed to 404,727.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Monday a series of new measures, including full weekend lockdown, to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The weekend curfew will start at 9 p.m. on Fridays and end at 5 a.m. on Mondays, while overnight lockdown will be imposed from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. every weekday, Erdogan said at a press conference after the cabinet meeting.

He also said Turkey will begin free COVID-19 vaccinations for Turkish citizens in December as the government has purchased 50 million doses for the initial phase.

Palestine

Hamas’s Gaza leader, Yehya Al-Sinwar, has tested positive for COVID-19, a spokesman for the Islamist militant group, which runs the Palestinian territory, said on Tuesday.

Sinwar, 58, is “following the advice of health authorities and taking precautionary measures”, spokesman Hazem Qassem said, without disclosing whether the Hamas chief was in quarantine.

Palestine said on Monday that it plans to get about 2 million vaccines from the World Health Organization and the vaccine manufacturers to curb COVID-19 spread in the Palestinian territories.

The Palestinian government has started to approach the manufacturers for coronavirus vaccines, the government said in a press statement.

The statement said the government decided to keep the West Bank lockdown running from 7 pm to 6 am until the end of this week.

A full lockdown will be imposed all over the West Bank on Friday and Saturday, it added.

Meanwhile, Samer al-Asaad, a senior official of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, warned of more coronavirus spread because of the increasing number of daily cases.

Iraq

The Iraqi Health Ministry reported on Monday 2,114 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total nationwide infections to 552,549.

It also reported 34 new deaths and 1,771 more recovered cases in the country, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 12,258 and the total recoveries to 482,674.

Meanwhile, a separate statement by the ministry's media office said that Health Minister Hassan al-Tamimi held a meeting in his office with a government committee tasked with strengthening health-protective measures and awareness to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The meeting reviewed the ministry's plans for storing and distributing vaccines after their approval by international health organizations, in addition to reviewing the ministry's health-protective plan for students and teachers as the new school year started on Sunday, according to the statement.

Nepal

The Nepali government on Monday reported that the death toll from COVID-19 in the country surpassed 1,500.

With 29 new deaths in the last 24 hours, the total deaths from COVID-19 in Nepal reached 1,508, according to Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population.

Total COVID-19 cases in Nepal reached 233,452 with 1,474 new cases in the last 24 hours, the ministry added.

Over 15 percent of staff at Nepal's commercial banks have been tested positive for COVID-19 so far, becoming one of the groups affected worst by the pandemic, Nepal Bankers' Association said.

According to the association, which is a forum of the chief executive officers of the Nepal's commercial banks, a total of 7,117 bank staff had been tested positive for coronavirus till Friday.  

READ MORE: Iran's COVID-19 cases top 900,000

Vietnam

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc ordered the country’s aviation authority to halt international commercial flights after the nation reported its first local coronavirus cases in almost three months, according to a posting on the government’s website.

The premier, who said “rescue” flights bringing Vietnamese home from abroad should continue, instructed the Ho Chi Minh City government to quickly trace and isolate everyone who came in contact with those who tested positive this week, the website reported.

Vietnam recorded four new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing its total tally to 1,351 with 35 deaths from the coronavirus epidemic, according to its Ministry of Health.

Among the new cases, all Vietnamese nationals, two recently returned from abroad and were quarantined upon arrival, said the ministry.

 The other two cases, a one-year-old boy and a 28-year-old woman, were in close contact with a man testing positive for COVID-19 on Monday. The infected man reported in southern Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City was the first community case detected in Vietnam in nearly three months.

Vietnam's Ministry of Health on Monday evening confirmed a new case of COVID-19 in the community, the first of the kind reported in the past 89 days.

Singapore

Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 10 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 58,228.

Of the new cases, eight are imported cases, one is a community case, and the remaining is linked with the dormitories of foreign workers.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia announced 232 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total tally to 357,360.

The recoveries rose to 346,802 with 393 more recovered cases in the kingdom, while the death toll reached 5,896 with the registration of 12 more fatalities.

Israel

Israel's Ministry of Health reported 1,211 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 336,664.

The death toll rose to 2,865 with one new fatality, while the number of patients in serious condition decreased from 263 to 260 out of 498 patients hospitalized.

The total recoveries in Israel rose to 323,651, with 663 new ones, while the active cases stand at 10,148.

The Israeli military announced on Monday the cancellation of soldiers' leaves as part of an effort to stop the recent rise in coronavirus morbidity.

Kuwait 

Kuwait greenlights the plan to allow foreign domestic workers to enter the country, Kuwait's Directorate-General for Civil Aviation (DGCA) said Tuesday.

The agency said the first phase of the plan, starting from Dec. 7, will include domestic workers from India and the Philippines. All foreign domestic workers will have to stay in a mandatory quarantine for two weeks once they enter the kingdom.

The Kuwaiti government decided last month to grant the foreign domestic helpers the permission to enter and agreed to provide an allowance of 270 Kuwaiti dinars (around US$885) for each domestic worker to cover the quarantine expenses.

Kuwait reported on Tuesday 357 new COVID-19 cases and one more death, raising the tally of infections to 142,992 and the death toll to 881 in the country.

Oman

The Omani health ministry announced 215 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases to 123,699. Meanwhile, 253 people recovered during the past 24 hours, taking the overall recoveries to 115,216, while five others died, pushing the death toll up to 1,423.

Cambodia

Cambodia's Ministry of Health (MoH) announced in a statement on Tuesday that three more local people tested positive for COVID-19, increasing the total number of infected people in the first community transmission to 17.

The first community transmission was detected on Saturday after a local family of six people, who reside in both capital Phnom Penh and Northwest Siem Reap province, confirmed positive for the virus, as the origin of their infection was unknown.

"The MoH had tested 2,621 people on Monday, and the results showed that three of them were positive for the COVID-19," the statement said.

Australia

The Australian state of Queensland reopened its borders to the residents from New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria on Tuesday, after months of restrictions due to COVID-19.

Also on Tuesday, the State of Western Australia announced as of Dec. 8 it would allow residents from NSW and Victoria to enter without having to quarantine.

Thousands of Australian's streamed north into Queensland on the first day of summer, reuniting loved ones and offering a much-needed boost to tourism industry operators across the state, which incorporates the Great Barrier Reef.

Authorities in Queensland had come under pressure to ease restrictions earlier in order to boost the local economy, saying they would not do so until the threat from COVID-19 was low enough.

As of Tuesday, NSW had gone 24 consecutive days without a locally acquired case of COVID-19, while Victoria had gone more than a month without a single active case.

Mongolia 

Mongolia registered 10 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 801, the National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Tuesday.

The latest confirmed cases were locally transmitted, said the NCCD in a statement. A total of 369 such cases have been reported so far across the country.

Domestically transmitted cases have been reported in the capital city of Ulan Bator and provinces of Selenge, Darkhan-Uul, Govisumber, Orkhon, Dornogovi and Arkhangai.

New Zealand

New Zealand reported three new cases of COVID-19 in managed isolation on Tuesday, with no new community cases.

One person arrived on Nov. 23 from Germany via Singapore and tested positive at routine day 3 testing. Further testing indicates that this case is historical but has not been reported overseas so it is included in New Zealand's totals, according to the Ministry of Health.

Another person arrived on the same day from the United States and was tested positive on day 6 due to a person in their bubble testing positive on day 3. The person is in the same cluster with the two cases on Monday, said a ministry statement.

The third case arrived on Thursday from South Africa and tested positive at routine day 3 testing.

Laos

The National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control announced on Tuesday that it has been monitoring 2,430 people across the country.

Sisavath Soutthaniraxay, Deputy Director General of the Department of Communicable Diseases Control under Lao Ministry of Health, told a press conference in Lao capital Vientiane on Tuesday that 2,430 people have been quarantined at 38 accommodation centers across the country.

On Monday, a total of 2,504 people entering Laos through international border checkpoints. Of these, 1,124 people crossed the border with Thailand, 175 of them were Lao returning workers and others were truck drivers bringing freight into Laos.

A total of 20 people entered Laos from China, while 1,088 people entered Laos from Vietnam.

Some 12 people entered Laos from Cambodia, while 13 people entered Laos from Myanmar, and 247 people entered Laos via the Wattay International Airport in Lao capital Vientiane.

At all border crossings, the temperature of each person entering Laos was checked and no on showed signs of fever.

The Lao government urged authorities countrywide to continue monitoring people entering country to prevent a second wave of COVID-19.

The Lao Ministry of Health has warned people and relevant authorities not to neglect containment and preventive measures, according to the report.

As of Tuesday, Laos has tested 79,557 suspected cases with 39 cases tested positive, and 26 patients have recovered.

Another 13 infected cases are treated in designated hospital, Mittaphab Hospital (Hospital 150) in Lao capital Vientiane.

Maldives

The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has crossed the 13,000-mark in the Maldives, local media reported Tuesday.

A total of 17 new cases of COVID-19 were detected by the Health Protection Agency (HPA), raising the country's total count to 13,011.

There are currently 1,019 active cases of COVID-19 in Maldives, out of which 95 have been hospitalized for treatment.

So far, 11,939 patients have fully recovered from the virus while 46 have died.