Students attend a COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine training programme at the Apollo Medskills in Hyderabad, India, on Dec 22, 2020. (PHOTO / AFP)

TOKYO / SYDNEY / SEOUL / DUBAI / SINGAPORE / HANOI / COLOMBO / JAKARTA / BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN - The developer of India’s main homegrown coronavirus vaccine is already producing millions of doses of its yet-to-be-authorized candidate, but says the thought of supplying enough shots for half the country’s nearly 1.4 billion people is daunting.

“It’s nightmarish,” said Suchitra Ella, joint managing director of Bharat Biotech International Ltd. “Sometimes I get goosebumps, sometimes I wake up early in the morning wondering where are we. What are we doing? How do we get there?”

Bharat has already produced about 10 million doses of its still-in-trials Covaxin shot, ahead of an anticipated roll out by the middle of next year. It has a current annual capacity of 300 million vaccines and expects the first 100 million to be deployed by India, which has partly financed the development.

As many as two other countries have also signed preliminary supply agreements with the company, Ella said, declining to give details.

In its bid to halt the spread of the world’s second-largest coronavirus outbreak, India will likely initially lean on the two-dose vaccines manufactured by Bharat Biotech and the Serum Institute of India Ltd. The latter has partnered with AstraZeneca Plc to make at least one billion doses of their shot, half of which have been earmarked for India.

Bharat has spent about US$60 million to US$70 million so far developing COVID-19 vaccines, and Ella said Monday that early trial data suggested Covaxin, an inactivated candidate that uses a dead version of the virus, has efficacy rates of at least 60 percent, which was a “conservative” projection.

India's COVID-19 tally rose to 10,075,116 on Tuesday as 19,556 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, said the latest data from the federal health ministry.

Australia

Australia’s most populous state on Tuesday reported its lowest one-day rise in new COVID-19 cases in nearly a week, fuelling optimism that contact tracing and social distancing were working to bring a dangerous new outbreak in Sydney under control.

New South Wales (NSW) reported eight new locally acquired COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, down on 15 reported one day earlier. Seven of the new cases were traced to a cluster in Sydney’s northern beachside suburbs, officials said.

The eighth case was a nurse who is believed to have caught the virus from a traveller returning from overseas, officials said.

The coronavirus cluster detected in Sydney’s northern beaches suburbs last week has now grown to 90 cases as authorities battle to contain the flare-up in Australia’s largest city just days before Christmas.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh reported 1,318 new COVID-19 cases and 17 more deaths on Tuesday, bringing the tally to 503,501 and death toll to 7,329, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said.

The official data showed that 15,145 samples were tested in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh.

Bangladesh's cabinet has decided to vaccinate at least 45 million people before May or June.

After the cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair on Monday, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam told reporters that the cabinet gave its approval to a proposal to vaccinate a total of 45 million people across the country before May or June.

Brunei

Brunei reported no new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday with the national tally of cases standing at 152.

According to Brunei's Ministry of Health, there is no active cases in the country and the total number of recovered cases remain at 149.

Cambodia 

Cambodia suspended sending laborers to neighboring Thailand on Monday after the latter has reported a surge in COVID-19 infections in its Samut Sakhon province, some 300 km away from the border.

Fiji

All inbound passenger flights to Fiji scheduled between Thursday to next Monday has been canceled by the COVID-19 Risk Mitigation Taskforce following a new variant of coronavirus in Britain.

A number of nations have started imposing travel bans as the new strain is more transmissible even though there is no evidence it is more deadly. The Fijian Health Ministry will use this period to conduct an extensive review of its border quarantine processes.

Indonesia


The COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 6,347 in the past 24 hours to 678,125, with the death toll adding by 172 to 20,257, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

According to the ministry, 5,838 more patients were discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recoveries from the COVID-19 pandemic to 552,722.

The coronavirus has spread to all the country's 34 provinces.

Iran

Iran’s total death count from the coronavirus surpassed 54,000 on Tuesday, with 187 more fatalities in the last 24 hours. The country’s total known infections reached 1.17 million, with 6,208 new cases overnight, up from 6,151 a day earlier, the Health Ministry reported.

Iraq

In Iraq, the health ministry reported on Monday 1,200 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total nationwide infections to 585,345.

The ministry also reported 13 new deaths and 1,668 more recovered cases in the country, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 12,710 and the total recoveries to 522,637, which represents more than 89 percent of the total infections.

READ MORE: Thailand mulls more lockdowns as seafood workers infected

Isarel

Israel's coronavirus cabinet decided on Monday to ban entry of non-Israeli nationals to Britain following the emergence of a new coronavirus variant.

The restrictions are scheduled to come into effect on Wednesday, the Israeli prime minister's office said in a statement.

Non-Israelis will not be allowed to enter the country, except for diplomats who are stationed in Israel and other special cases. Starting from Wednesday, Israelis returning from abroad will have to quarantine in designated hotels.

Israel also saw another resurgence of COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours. The country reported 2,377 new coronavirus cases on Monday, bringing the total to 376,857.

The death toll of the virus in Israel increased to 3,109 with 12 new fatalities, while the number of patients in serious condition rose from 455 to 470, out of 831 hospitalized patients.

In this picture taken on Dec 16, 2020, pedestrians walk past a poster promoting the anime movie Demon Slayer at a cinema in Tokyo. (PHOTO / AFP)

Japan

Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) on Tuesday said its two most senior ranking officers have tested positive for COVID-19.

The two officers, Chief of Staff Hiroshi Yamamura and Vice Chief of Staff Naruto Nishi, tested positive for the virus after taking polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests following their possible close contact with a person who had tested positive for the virus.

Japan’s struggle to contain the coronavirus ahead of the holiday season has prompted some local leaders to ask more vulnerable residents to embrace a more extreme precaution: wearing masks at home.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga reiterated there was no need for Japan to enter a national state of emergency, even as health groups declared their own state of emergency for the medical system as coronavirus infection rates continue to rise.

Suga said on Monday evening the head of the government’s expert panel on the coronavirus pandemic had told him “we’re not there yet” with regards to calling a state of emergency. Suga was responding during an interview on national television.

Suga has been struggling with falling approval ratings, with polls showing the public disapproves of how he has handled the pandemic.

Japan has seen a rise in new infection rates in recent weeks, with a record 2,154 people hospitalised as of Monday, according to national broadcaster NHK.

Kuwait

Kuwait decided to ban all international commercial flights from and to Kuwait after it suspended flights from Britain a day earlier. The decision will come into force from 11:00 p.m. (local time) on Monday until Jan. 1, 2021.

Kuwait's COVID-19 cases increased by 230 to 148,209 on Monday, while the death toll rose by one to 922.

Laos

Laos' national committee in charge of COVID-19 prevention and control has urged authorities and people nationwide to comply with the measures put in place to ensure everyone's wellbeing.

The Lao government has stepped up measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as ordered by the Prime Minister's Office after the number of cases has increased in neighboring Thailand.

Malaysia

Malaysia reported 2,062 new COVID-19 infections, the health ministry said on Tuesday, bringing the national total to 97,389.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that four of the new cases are imported and 2,058 are local transmissions.

One new death has been reported, pushing the death toll to 439.

Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said Tuesday that he will be among the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in a bid to convince people that the vaccine obtained by the country is safe and effective.

Malaysia has signed a deal with AstraZeneca Plc. to secure 6.4 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said.

The government is also in final negotiations with China’s Sinovac, CanSino Biologics and Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute, part of a plan to get supplies to cover more than 80 percent of the population, or 26.5 million people, he said in a televised address on Tuesday. The country expects to spend US$504.4 million on the shots, he said.

Mongolia 

Mongolia reported a total of 13 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, bringing its total confirmed cases to 1,006, according to the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) on Tuesday.

The latest confirmed cases were locally transmitted or patients being hospitalized at the capital city's Bayanzurkh District General Hospital, their family members and health workers of the hospital, said Amarjargal Ambaselmaa, head of the NCCD's Surveillance Department, at a press conference.

A total of 563 domestically transmitted cases of the virus have been reported across the country so far, according to the NCCD.

Oman

Oman will close its land, air and sea borders as of 01:00 am (local time) on Tuesday for one week, the country's state TV reported on Monday.

Pakistan 

Pakistan registered 1,704 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking its national caseload to 460,672, according to official statistics on Tuesday.

 Meanwhile, the country reported 82 more deaths from the virus, raising the death toll to 9,474, showed data issued by the government of Pakistan in its latest update. 

Palestine

Earlier on Monday, the Palestinian health ministry recorded 31 deaths and 1,514 new COVID-19 cases in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Palestine in March, the health ministry recorded 140,047 COVID-91 cases, including 1,287 deaths. 

This handout photograph taken on Dec 21, 2020 and released by the DHL Singapore shows cargo pellets containing the Singapore's first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines arriving in Singapore. (PHOTO / AFP)

Singapore

The first batch of coronavirus shots arrived in Singapore on Monday, marking an important step in the city-state’s plan to vaccinate its population and serve as a global hub for distribution of the jabs.

Singapore Airlines Ltd delivered the vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE from Brussels, the airline said in a statement on Monday. The shots were sent to ground handling operator SATS Ltd’s cold-chain facility for subsequent storage and transportation.

Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 10 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 58,432.

South Korea

South Korea will close its ski resorts and tourist spots from Dec. 24 to Jan. 3 in an attempt to prevent the coronavirus from spreading further, Prime Minister Chung Sye-Kyun said.

The country also announced a plan Tuesday to launch a nationwide ban on the gatherings of five or more people in restaurants amid a COVID-19 resurgence ahead of the year-end peak season for meetings and events.

South Korea has reported 869 more cases of COVID-19, raising the total number of infections to 51,460 as of Tuesday noon.

Sri Lanka


Sri Lanka has decided to suspend all incoming flights from Britain following the spread there of a new variant of the COVID-19 virus, the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka  (CAASL) said on Tuesday.

CAASL chairman Upul Dharmadasa said that the flight suspension to start from 2.00 a.m. local time on Wednesday is intended to prevent the new coronavirus strain from entering the island country.

People line up to sanitise their hands as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus at the Ministry of Transport at the border crossing over the second Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge in Mae Sot in Tak province on Oct 29, 2020. (LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)

Thailand

Thailand’s coronavirus infections continued to climb following an outbreak in a coastal province near the capital last weekend, as the nation’s premier ordered stricter border surveillance to catch illegal entrants from neighboring countries including Myanmar.

Thailand on Tuesday confirmed 427 new infections, with the majority of the cases having ties to the Samut Sakhon outbreak, taking the nation’s total infections to 5,716 cases, according to COVID-19 Spokesman Taweesilp Witsanuyotin.

The new outbreak was discovered near Bangkok at the weekend when hundreds of workers tested positive for COVID-19 at a big seafood center now under a lockdown.

More than 1,100 cases have been traced back to the now shuttered center, a commercial area where scores of vendors typically deal in shrimps and other seafood for distribution around the country.

The government urged those traders from a quarter of the ountry’s provinces to seek tests on Tuesday, in a bid to contain its biggest COVID-19 outbreak.

Thailand also shares a long boundary with Myanmar. Of the total in the latest outbreak, 1,273 cases as of Tuesday were migrant workers, according to Taweesilp.

The Philippines

The Philippines expects to soon sign deals for the supply of as many as 60 million coronavirus vaccine doses for delivery as early as the second quarter of 2021, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez said.

The Southeast Asian nation will next week sign an agreement with AstraZeneca Plc for 20 million vaccine doses, and was assured of 30 million doses by Serum Institute of India which will produce Novavax Inc.’s vaccine, Galvez said in a televised briefing late Monday.

The Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines reported 1,314 new COVID-19 cases of on Tuesday, bringing the total number in the country to 462,815.

The death toll climbed to 9,021 after 66 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH added.

The DOH said it had tested over 6.1 million people so far since the disease emerged in the country in January. The Philippines has a population of about 110 million.

ALSO READ: India hits 10 million coronavirus cases but pace slows

Turkey

Turkey identified and isolated a total of 4,603 passengers, arriving from Britain after Dec 14, over the concerns of the new strain of COVID-19, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Tuesday.

"All passengers were isolated in their residences or hotels," Koca said in a tweet, noting that their polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are carried out under the coordination of the General Directorate of Public Health.

The governor of Istanbul announced on Tuesday that the largest Turkish city has "left behind" the peak of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

Ali Yerlikaya said the number of inpatients fell by 40 percent, and the occupancy rate of intensive care units declined by 25 percent.

Turkey reported on Monday 19,103 COVID-19 cases, including 3,412 symptomatic patients, as the total number of positive cases in the country so far increased to 2,043,704, its health ministry announced.

The death toll in Turkey rose by 254 to 18,351, while the total recoveries climbed to 1,835,705 after 34,419 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours.

The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients stands at 4.1 percent and the number of seriously ill patients is 5,192 in Turkey, the worst-hit country in the Middle East.

Uzbekistan 

Uzbekistan has suspended entry, exit and transit flights with eight countries after new coronavirus variants were detected in some of these countries, Uzbekistan's special commission against COVID-19 said Tuesday.

Uzbekistan has decided to introduce a procedure for COVID-19 rapid antigen detection tests for all people arriving in the country from Dec. 25, Uzbek Foreign Ministry said Monday.

The decision was taken by the special republican commission to combat coronavirus and prepare a program of measures to prevent the importation and spread of COVID-19, it said.

Vietnam


Vietnam recorded six new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing its total tally to 1,420 with 35 deaths from the coronavirus epidemic, according to its Ministry of Health.

The new cases were reported in a Japanese and five Vietnamese nationals who recently entered the country from abroad and were quarantined upon arrival, said the ministry.