People queue to be tested for the COVID-19 coronavirus at a seafood market in Samut Sakhon on December 19, 2020 after some new cases of local infections were detected and linked to a vendor at the market. (JACK TAYLOR / AFP)

SYDNEY / SEOUL / DUBAI - Thailand plans to test more than 10,000 people after a record daily surge in coronavirus cases to over 500, most of which were among migrant workers linked to a shrimp market near the capital, an official said on Sunday.

By Wednesday the authorities aim to conduct 10,300 tests in the southwest province of Samut Sakhon, where the outbreak appeared, and such nearby provinces as Samut Songkhram and Nakhon Pathom, Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for Thailand’s COVID-19 taskforce, told a news conference.

Lockdown measures were imposed in Bangkok's neighboring province Samut Sakhon as 516 new confirmed COVID-19 cases with a local seafood market as their origin were reported in the past 24 hours, according to a health official on Saturday.

The infections were among a record daily caseload of 548 in the Asian country.

The infections detected in Samut Sakhon were mostly reported in migrant workers employed by the local fishing industry, Disease Control Department Director General Opas Kankawinphong told a press briefing.

Australia

Australia's biggest city Sydney reintroduced stricter restrictions on Sunday as confirmed cases related to a local COVID -19 cluster continued to grow.

The state of New South Wales (NSW) recorded 30 more locally acquired daily COVID-19 cases on Saturday night, and an additional six cases in returned travelers in hotel quarantine, making the total number of cases related to the cluster in Northern Beaches to 68, according to the state's health authorities.

Among the 30 new locally acquired cases, 28 are linked to the Avalon cluster, while investigations are ongoing into the source of the remaining two cases, both of whom live on the Northern Beaches.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Sunday morning announced several new restrictions to be applied to Greater Sydney from midnight Sunday.

Household gatherings will be limited to 10 visitors. One person per 4 square meter rule will be re-introduced for all indoor settings including hospitality venues and places of worship.

Armenia 

Armenia on Sunday reported 652 new COVID-19 cases, taking its total to 153,825, according to the country's National Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile, 14 more deaths from the virus were registered, raising the death toll to 2,630. 

Bahrain 

Bahrain confirmed 179 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing its nationwide tally to 90,062, the country's ministry of health reported.

Meanwhile, no death was reported during the past 24 hours in the country, with the death toll standing at 349.

Additionally, 175 more patients have recovered from the virus, taking the total recoveries to 88,178.

India

India's COVID-19 tally rose to 10,031,223 on Sunday as 26,624 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 145,477 as 341 more COVID-19 patients died since Saturday morning.

There are still 305,344 active cases in the country, while 9,580,402 people have been discharged so far from hospitals after medical treatment.

Iran

Iran announced 6,421 new COVID-19 infections confirmed in the past 24 hours, raising the overall count of cases in the country to 1,152,072.

Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said at her daily briefing that 175 deaths related to the epidemic were registered between Friday and Saturday.

This is the first time Iran has reported a figure of daily fatalities of COVID-19 under 200 since Oct. 10, when 195 people were officially declared deceased to the pandemic. The coronavirus epidemic has so far claimed 53,448 lives in Iran, she said.

On Saturday morning, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani announced in a meeting of the Iranian National Headquarters for Combating the Coronavirus that the number of counties on red alert for a high risk of infection is now zero, after a month of enhanced restrictions.

Iraq

 Iraq expects to reach a deal with Pfizer Inc. for 1.5 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine within the next few days, and aims to receive the shots in the second quarter of 2021. 

Iraq reported 1,307 new cases, bringing the tally to 583,118. The death toll hit 12,680 with 10 new deaths and the recovered cases reached 519,005.   

Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus on a live television broadcast Saturday evening.

Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein received the shot at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu was the first Israeli to receive the vaccine, hours before a major roll-out of the vaccinations was to begin in the country.

"This is a great day," Netanyahu told reporters at Sheba, "I believe in this vaccine and I am doing this to serve as a role model and encourage people to get vaccinated."

Israel has decided to widen quarantine obligation to all arriving passengers, as part of the efforts to curb the recent rise in COVID-19 morbidity, the state's Ministry of Health said on Saturday.

Israel's total number of COVID-19 infections increased to 373,368 after 1,866 new cases were added over the past 24 hours, the country's health ministry said Sunday.

Its death toll from the disease stands at 3,074, and total recoveries rose to 346,217.

Jordan

Jordan on Saturday reported 1,283 new COVID-19 cases, taking its total number of infections to 272,797, according to official  statistics.

The country also reported 27 more deaths from the virus, raising the death toll to 3,545, according to data issued by the country's Health Ministry.

The ministry called on citizens to abide by restrictive orders, follow preventive measures, such as wearing masks, and to refrain from gatherings of more than 20 people. 

Residents of the northern beaches queue up for COVID-19 tests at a roadside testing center in Sydney on Dec 20, 2020. (GLENN NICHOLLS / AFP)

Kazakhstan 

Kazakhstan reported 652 new COVID-19 cases over the past day, taking its total caseload to 146,584, according to the latest data updated by the country's health ministry.

So far, the country's total death toll has reached 2,147 and 130,776 people have recovered, according to the ministry.

Kuwait 

Kuwait's COVID-19 cases increased by 244 to 147,775 on the same day, while the death toll rose by two to 918.

The Kuwaiti Health Ministry also announced the recovery of 286 more patients, taking the total recoveries to 143,641.

Lebanon

Firas Abiad, director general of Lebanon's Rafic Hariri University Hospital, announced on Saturday that COVID-19 is still widely spread in the Lebanese community.

"The highly recorded daily COVID cases, the wide distribution of the new cases all over the country, and the high test positivity rate make one thing very clear: COVID-19 is strongly present and widely spread in the community in Lebanon," Abiad tweeted.

Abiad emphasized the need by people to increase their precautionary measures amid easing of restrictions by authorities during the festive season. 

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Malaysia 

Malaysia will sign an agreement on Monday for AstraZeneca Plc to supply COVID-19 vaccine doses to cover a fifth of the country’s population, state news agency Bernama reported, citing Health Minister Adham Baba.

The government last month ordered 12.8 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech SE vaccine to inoculate about 20 percent of the population. It also has an agreement with the World Health Organization’s Covax facility for enough doses to vaccinate 10 percent of its people, Bernama reported.

Mongolia 

Mongolia reported eight more COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours after 8,416 tests had been conducted across the country, the National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Sunday.

Six of the new cases were locally transmitted and detected at the capital city Ulan Bator's Bayanzurkh District General Hospital. The remaining two are Mongolian nationals who had returned home on a chartered flight from Frankfurt, Germany, Amarjargal Ambaselmaa, head of the NCCD's Surveillance Department, said at a press conference.

Nepal 

Nepal on Saturday confirmed 710 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the national total to 253,184, said the health ministry.

Meanwhile, 12 more deaths from the virus were reported, raising the national death toll to 1,777.

New Zealand

New Zealand reported six new cases of COVID-19 in managed isolation over the weekend, said the Ministry of Health in a statement on Sunday.

The new cases were all imported cases in managed isolation facilities counted since the ministry's last media statement on Friday. There was no new case in the community.

The total number of active cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand is 55 and the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country reached 1,760, it said.

Pakistan 

Pakistan on Saturday registered 2,615 new COVID-19 cases, taking its total number of infections to 457,288, according to official statistics.

The country also reported 80 more deaths from the virus, raising the death toll to 9,330, according to data issued by the government of Pakistan in its latest update.

Qatar

Qatar expects to receive the first batch of a vaccine on Monday, Prime Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz al-Thani said in a tweet.

The Qatari health ministry on Saturday announced 142 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 141,858.

It said 137 more recovered from the virus, bringing the overall recoveries to 139,521, while the fatalities increased by one to 243.

Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, 300,000 people registered to take the COVID-19 vaccine, Arab News reported.

Singapore

Singapore is looking into 13 imported COVID-19 cases among people who had served Stay-Home Notice (SHN) at a local hotel in order to seek their potential link, a press release said Saturday.

The investigation is meant to find out whether the transmission could have occurred locally.

The imported cases confirmed from Nov. 2 to 11 were initially found to have high genetic similarity despite that they arrived from different countries. This suggests that they likely had a similar origin, according to the press release jointly issued by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Singapore Tourism Board.

South Korea

The Asian country reported a record 1,097 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, testing authorities who have so far refrained from raising social distancing measures to the highest level. 

The health ministry’s Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters said last week that it needs to determine if imposing Level 3 steps will be effective and that such a decision would need public input and consent.

The Philippines

The Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines reported 1,754 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the total number in the country to 459,789.

The DOH said 8,080 more patients recovered, raising the total number of recoveries to 429,134. The death toll climbed to 8,947 after 36 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH added.

The UAE

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) reported 1,254 new cases, taking the tally to 192,404. It also confirmed four new deaths, taking the death toll to 634. The recoveries hit 168,129 in the UAE.

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Turkey

Turkey reported on Saturday 22,195 COVID-19 cases, as the total number of positive cases in the country reached 2,004,285. 

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 241 to 17,851, while the total recoveries climbed to 1,779,068 after 25,516 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours.

The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients stands at 2.9 percent and the number of seriously ill patients is 5,501 in the country, said the ministry.