Healthcare workers wearing protective gear handle oxygen tanks at a community coronavirus facility in Yangon on Nov 6, 2020. Ye Aung THU / AFP

JAKARTA / SYDNEY / BAGHDAD / WELLINGTON / ANKARA / NEW DELHI / PHNOM PENH / ULAN BATOR / ISLAMABAD / JERUSALEM / VIENTIANE / TASHKENT / BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN / BISHKEK / MANILA / KABUL - he total number of COVID-19 cases in Myanmar has increased to 100,431 as of Monday after 1,276 more cases were reported, according to a release from the Ministry of Health and Sports.

The death toll reached 2,132 with 22 newly reported deaths on Monday, while 79,240 patients have been discharged from hospitals so far, the release said.

According to the ministry's figures, a total of 1,307,744 samples have been tested for COVID-19 so far.

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Afghanistan

The death toll of COVID-19 in Afghanistan has increased to 1,902 after 27 patients lost their lives within the past 24 hours, the country's Ministry of Public Health reported on Monday.

The ministry also confirmed 232 new cases during the period, bringing the number of infected people across the country to 48,133 including 7,737 active cases, the ministry said in a statement.

Australia

Australia’s second-largest city welcomed its first international passenger flight in five months on Monday, an arrival that will test the state of Victoria’s revamped hotel quarantine system.

Australia has since March closed its borders to non-citizens, but airports serving Melbourne, Victoria’s capital, stopped accepting any arrivals in late June after an outbreak of COVID-19 that begun at two hotels where arrivals were quarantining.

Australia registered seven new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking its total caseload to 27,972, according to latest data released on its government website on Monday.

The death toll in the country has now reached 908, active cases now stand at 1,422, and total recoveries have hit 25,642, according to figures from the Department of Health, States and Territories.

Bangladesh 

Bangladesh reported 2,198 new COVID-19 cases and 36 new deaths on Monday, making the tally at 479,743 and death toll at 6,874, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said.

The official data showed that 14,369 samples were tested in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh.

The total number of recovered patients in the country stood at 398,623 including 2,663 new recoveries on Monday, said the DGHS.

Bangladeshi Education Minister Dipu Moni has tested positive for the virus.

Police stand guard at a hotel in Melbourne on Dec 7, 2020 where Australians returning from overseas will quarantine as part of precautions against the COVID-19 coronavirus. (WILLIAM WEST / AFP)

Brunei

Brunei reported no new cases of COVID-19 on Monday with the national tally of cases standing at 151.

According to Brunei's Ministry of Health, no more recovery was recorded, maintaining the total number of recovered cases at 147. There is one active case still being treated at the National Isolation Center.

Cambodia

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said Sunday midnight that he would not propose King Norodom Sihamoni to put the country in the state of emergency although he had already drafted the request.

"As the head of the government, I would like to confirm that there will be no request (to His Majesty the King) to put the country in the state of emergency wholly or partially," he said on Facebook, adding that there would be no lockdown in the capital city.

Cambodia confirmed two more locally-transmitted COVID-19 cases in the capital, raising the total number of infected people in the first-ever community transmission to 32, said a Ministry of Health's statement on Monday.

The first community transmission was detected on Nov 28 after six people in a family, who reside in both capital Phnom Penh and northwestern Siem Reap province, tested positive for the virus, as the origin of their infection has not been determined yet.

The new cases were detected Sunday on a 21-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman, who both live in the capital's Meanchey district, the statement said, adding that they had connections with recently-infected people.

India

India's COVID-19 tally reached 9,677,203 on Monday as 32,981 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, said the latest data from the federal health ministry.

According to the data, the death toll mounted to 140,573 as 391 more patients died since Sunday morning.

Delhi has been one of the most COVID-affected places in the country. As many as 2,706 daily cases and 69 deaths were registered in the national capital.

Due to the continued spell of COVID-19 pandemic, the country's Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has decided to continue the suspension of international flights till the year-end.

India is accelerating its review of coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca for emergency use, a senior government official said on Monday, as the world’s second-most affected country struggles to contain the outbreak.

Passengers wearing facemasks as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus sit outside a railway station in New Delhi on Dec 6, 2020. (SAJJAD HUSSAIN / AFP)

Indonesia

The Indonesian government has spent nearly US$45 million purchasing vaccines this year, a minister said Monday.

The funds were used to buy 3 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine and 100,000 doses of the Cansino vaccine, both from China, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told a briefing.

Indonesia received its first shipment of coronavirus vaccine from China on Sunday, President Joko Widodo said, as the government prepares a mass inoculation programme.

Jokowi, as the president is widely known, said in an online briefing that the Southeast Asian country had received 1.2 million doses from Sinovac, a vaccine Indonesia has been testing since August.

Late-stage trials of the Sinovac vaccine are also under way in Brazil and Turkey, with interim results on efficiency from Brazil expected by mid-December.

The COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 5,754 within one day to 581,550, with the death toll adding by 127 to 17,867, the Health Ministry said on Monday.

Iran

Iran reported 284 fatalities from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, its lowest number of daily deaths in seven weeks, taking the total to 50,594. The number of daily new infections fell for a fourth day in a row to 10,827, the lowest in four weeks, the latest Health Ministry data showed.

Iraq

The Iraqi Ministry of Health reported on Sunday 1,680 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total nationwide infections to 564,200.

The ministry also reported 21 new deaths and 1,910 more recovered cases in the country, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 12,432 and the total recoveries to 493,567.

Israel

Israel's total number of COVID-19 infections increased to 345,201 after 295 new cases were added over the past 24 hours, according to its health ministry.

Its death toll from the disease stands at 2,917, and total recoveries rose to 356,542.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Sunday coronavirus cabinet meeting that a third wave of COVID-19 was starting in Israel and urgent measures were needed apart from efforts to start vaccination as soon as possible.

Netanyahu said that he does not exclude reintroducing restrictions to curb COVID-19 infection rates.

Israeli media ealier reported that mass vaccination against the coronavirus could start in Israel later this month. 

Kyrgyzstan

The number of COVID-19 cases in Kyrgyzstan surged to 75,395 on Monday with 293 more people testing positive for the coronavirus over the last 24 hours.

Among the newly confirmed cases, 12 are medical workers, bringing the total number of infected medical staff to 3,980, the Republican Headquarters for Combating COVID-19 said.

Two new fatalities were confirmed, bringing the total death toll from COVID-19 in the country to 1,297.

Laos

Laos has detected two more confirmed COVID-19 cases, with its total number rising to 41, according to Lao Ministry of Health.

As of Monday, Laos has tested 82,178 suspected cases, with 41 cases tested positive and 26 patients have recovered.

Malaysia 

Malaysia reported 1,600 new COVID-19 infections, the Health Ministry said on Monday, bringing the national total to 74,294.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that three of the new cases are imported and 1,597 are local transmissions.

Two new deaths have been reported, pushing the death toll to 384.

Mongolia

Mongolia reported 38 more COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, raising its national tally to 887, the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Monday.

The latest confirmed cases were locally transmitted, including three health workers of the Central Military Hospital, Amarjargal Ambaselmaa, head of the surveillance department of the NCCD, said at a daily press conference.

A total of 455 locally-transmitted cases have been reported nationwide so far, notably in the capital city of Ulan Bator and provinces of Selenge, Darkhan-Uul, Govisumber, Orkhon, Dornogovi and Arkhangai.

This handout photo taken on Dec 6, 2020 and released by the Indonesian Presidential Palace shows the medical personnel arriving back with the 1.2 million dosage of COVID-19 vaccine made by Sinovac, on arrival from Beijing at the Jakarta International Airport in Tangerang. (HANDOUT / INDONESIAN PRESIDENTIAL PALACE / AFP)

New Zealand

New Zealand reports one new case of COVID-19 in managed isolation on Monday.

This case arrived on Dec 4 from Britain via Hong Kong, and tested positive upon arrival. The patient has been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility, according to the Ministry of Health.

Pakistan

Pakistan registered 3,795 new COVID-19 cases and 37 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to latest official data released on its government website Monday morning.

The death toll in the country has now reached 8,398, active cases now stand at 55,354, and total recoveries have hit 356,542, according to figures released by the health ministry.

South Korea

Sixteen more US soldiers and one civilian employee in South Korea tested positive for COVID-19, the US Forces Korea (USFK) said Monday.

The USFK said in a statement that 17 USFK-affiliated individuals were confirmed with COVID-19 after arriving in South Korea between Nov 20 and Dec 4.

South Korea reported 615 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours, according to data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s website. The data comes a day after infections reached 631, the most in nine months, prompting health authorities to impose stricter social-distancing measures for the third time in a month. The measures, which take effect Tuesday, include a ban on gatherings at high-risk venues such as karaoke bars.

The Philippines

The number of COVID-19 infection in the Philippines rose to 441,399 after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 1,574 new cases on Monday.

The DOH said 80 more patients recovered, raising the total number of recoveries to 408,702. The death toll climbed to 8,572 after 18 more patients died from the viral disease, according to the DOH.

The government has drawn a list of sectors to receive the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque told a virtual press conference on Monday.

Nearly 25 million Filipinos are on the list of the priority sectors in the government's immunization program, Roque said.

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Children play in a street near the Suleymaniye mosque in Istanbul during a week-end curfew aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic on Dec 6, 2020. (OZAN KOSE / AFP)

Thailand

No lockdown measures have been or will be taken as falsely rumored due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand's northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, said a senior government official on Monday.

The authorities have not planned to take lockdown measures against the COVID-19 in the northern provinces where certain Thai females have been confirmed of infection and are currently hospitalized, according to the Department of Disease Control's acting director-general Opas Kankawinphong.

Turkey

Turkey recorded 30,402 new coronavirus cases, including asymptomatic ones, over the past 24 hours, Health Ministry data showed on Sunday.

The COVID-19 death toll rose by 195 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities to 14,900, the ministry data also showed.

Turkey was on lockdown over the weekend to combat the recent surge in daily deaths, which hit a record of 196 on Saturday, and new infections.

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan registered 149 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking its total caseload to 74,053, according to latest official data released on its government website Monday morning.

The death toll in the country has now reached 611, active cases now stand at 2,127, and total recoveries have hit 71,315, according to figures released by the health ministry.

Vietnam 

Vietnam reported a new case of COVID-19 infection on Monday, bringing its total confirmed cases to 1,367 with 35 deaths from the disease so far, according to its Ministry of Health.

The new case is a 29-year-old Vietnamese citizen who recently entered the country from abroad and was quarantined upon arrival, said the ministry.