A man dressed in a Santa Claus outfit, wearing a face shield and kneeling behind a transparent barrier amid concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, gestures to a girl at a shopping mall with Christmas decorations in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 22, 2020. (MOHD RASFAN / AFP)

SINGAPORE / JERUSALEM / ANKARA / BAGHDAD / JAKARTA / DHAKA / BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN / KUALA LUMPUR / TEHRAN / HANOI - Malaysia reported 1,581 new COVID-19 infections, the health ministry said on Thursday, bringing the national total to 100,318.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that two of the new cases are imported and 1,579 are local transmissions.

Two more deaths have been reported, pushing the death toll to 446.

ALSO READ: Malaysia Islamic authorities say COVID-19 shots are permissible

South Korea

South Korea has signed deals with Pfizer Inc and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen to import coronavirus vaccines to cover up to 16 million people, as it grapples with the third wave of infections, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a televised briefing on Thursday.

The government has been facing growing public pressure over their COVID-19 vaccine procurement plans as the country struggled to contain a third wave of the pandemic, reporting its second-highest daily tally of cases on Wednesday.

Pfizer’s two-dose vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech, will be enough to cover for 10 million people and its shipment is expected in the third quarter of 2021

“We are mobilising the entire national capabilities to bring in the shipments within the second quarter,” said Chung. “The negotiation is underway.”

Chung said the doses from Janssen - J&J’s pharmaceuticals division - were added from the initial amount for 2 million people to 6 million and will be ready for inoculation from the second quarter.

The Pfizer and Janssen deals are part of a government plan to buy enough doses that will allow immunisation of 85 percent of South Korea’s population of 52 million.

Two other drugmakers of the four the country had secured the doses from are AstraZeneca Plc and Moderna Inc.

Doses for 10 million people would be procured through the global COVAX initiative, backed by the World Health Organization.

The health authorities had said they would not rush inoculation to allow more time to observe potential side effects.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 985 new coronavirus cases as of Wednesday midnight, bringing the nation’s tally to 53,533, with 756 deaths.

A medical staff member wearing protective gear takes a swab from a visitor to test for the COVID-19 at a temporary testing station outside the City Hall in Seoul on Dec 23, 2020. (PHOTO / AFP)

Turkey

Turkey reported on Wednesday 19,650 new COVID-19 cases, including 3,192 symptomatic patients, raising the total number in the country to 2,082,610.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 259 to 18,861, while the total recoveries climbed to 1,901,307 after 34,492 more recovered in the last 24 hours, according to the Turkish health ministry.

The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients stands at 4.1 percent while the number of seriously ill patients is 4,901, said the ministry.

A total of 202,209 tests were conducted over the past day, bringing the overall number of tests in Turkey to 23,030,162.

READ MORE: Leading Indian vaccine maker readies for 'uphill' roll out

Iraq

The Iraqi Health Ministry reported on Wednesday 1,173 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total nationwide number to 587,676.

The new cases included 307 in the capital Baghdad, 185 in Kirkuk, 162 in Nineveh and 90 in Diyala, the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry also reported 12 new deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 12,737, and 1,448 more recovered cases, bringing the total recoveries to 525,792.

A total of 4,257,654 tests have been carried out across the country since the outbreak of the disease in February, with 36,238 done during the day, according to the statement.

Iran

Iran's Health Ministry reported 6,178 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, raising the total nationwide infections to 1,183,182.

The pandemic has so far claimed 54,308 lives in Iran, up by 152 in the past 24 hours, said Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, during her daily briefing.

Of the newly infected, 924 were hospitalized, said Lari.

People have their lunch at the Maxwell market hawker centre in Singapore on Dec 17, 2020. (PHOTO / AFP)

Singapore

Singapore has confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus variant found in the United Kingdom, the city-state said, while 11 others who were already in quarantine had returned preliminarily positive results for the new strain.

All the cases, which were imported from Europe, had been placed in 14-day quarantine at dedicated facilities or isolated upon arrival, and their close contacts had been quarantined earlier.

“There is currently no evidence that the B117 strain is circulating in the community,” Singapore’s health ministry said late on Wednesday, referring to the new, potentially more infectious UK strain.

Singapore has been conducting viral genomic sequencing for confirmed COVID-19 cases who arrived from Europe recently.

The strain was found among 31 cases from Europe, who arrived in Singapore between Nov 17 and Dec 17 and were confirmed to have COVID-19 this month.

The patient with the new variant came to Singapore from the UK on Dec 6, had been quarantined on arrival and tested positive on Dec. 8. All her close contacts had been placed on quarantine, and had tested negative at the end of their quarantine period.

The health ministry said it had been able to ring-fence the case so that there was no further transmission.

Confirmatory results were pending for the other 11 cases.

Singapore has blocked visitors with recent travel history to the United Kingdom to prevent the new strain from spreading in the city-state that has reported almost zero new local infections daily.

Singapore now requires all travelers from South Korea to serve a 14-day quarantine at dedicated facilities due to “a sustained surge in cases” in the North Asian country, according to a statement.

Previously those with a history of travel to Korea in the past 14 days would have been allowed to serve their quarantine at a place of residence. The new directive comes into effect from 11:59 pm on Dec 26.

The ruling also applies to returning Singapore-based travelers under the reciprocal green lane with South Korea.

Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 21 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 58,482.

Indonesia

The COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 7,199 within one day to 692,838, with the death toll adding by 181 to 20,589, the country's health ministry said on Thursday.

Australia

The cluster of COVID-19 infections in Sydney’s Northern Beaches has grown to 104, according to authorities, who urged residents to limit their movements help curb the spread of the virus. New South Wales state recorded seven new cases linked to the cluster and are investigating a further two cases, Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters Thursday.

Health officials in the Australian State of New South Wales have urged those gathering with family and friends on Christmas Day to be mindful of a recent COVID-19 outbreak and take precautions to avoid potential transmissions.

A number of additional venues were named as being visited by known cases, including the iconic "Icebergs" pool at Bondi Beach and a central city bar near Circular Quay.

India

Indian capital Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Thursday said it has identified 5.1 million people who will be inoculated with COVID-19 vaccine in the first phase across the city under the federal government's "priority category".

The Chief Minister said currently Delhi has built and arranged storage capacity for 7.4 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and in the coming days it would be increased further.

Kejriwal said over 10 million doses are needed to cover priority categories comprising healthcare workers, police, civil defence volunteers, those aged above 50 and people aged below 50 with associated comorbidities such as diabetes, heart ailments among others.

India's COVID-19 tally rose to 10,123,778 on Thursday as 24,712 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 146,756 with 312 more deaths.

Japan

The Tokyo metropolitan government on Thursday reported a record 888 new daily coronavirus cases, as concerns continue to grow about the increasing strain on the medical system as cases in the capital continue to surge.

The last figure has surpassed the previous record of 821 recorded on Dec 17, bringing the city of 14 million's cumulative total of infections to 54,018.

Since Dec 17, the Tokyo metropolitan government has raised its alert level regarding the strain on the medical system to the highest on its four tier scale.

Mongolia 

Mongolia added six COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours after 11,800 tests had been conducted across the country, the National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Thursday.

Five of the latest cases were locally transmitted, Amarjargal Ambaselmaa, head of the NCCD's Surveillance Department, told a press conference.

The other one is a Mongolian national who returned from Japan on a chartered flight on Monday, said Ambaselmaa.

Mongolia has confirmed a total of 1,069 COVID-19 cases so far, including 627 locally transmitted ones, according to the center.

Meanwhile, 43 more patients have recovered from the disease, taking the total number of recoveries to 584.

A Israeli woman gets vaccinated against COVID-19 coronavirus at Clalit Health Services in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv, on Dec 23, 2020. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

Israel

Israel’s cabinet approved a third national lockdown of up to four weeks to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Stores, malls and most schools will be closed starting Sunday evening, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in the early hours of Thursday. The restrictions will be in place for two weeks, but if the basic reproduction number doesn’t fall below 1 and the number of new cases below 1,000, the lockdown will be extended another two weeks.

The Israeli Ministry of Health said Wednesday that four cases of infection with the new strain of coronavirus were detected in the country.

It said three of the patients arrived from Britain and were immediately sent to quarantine in a designated hotel.

The fourth case detected in Israel is still under inquiry, the ministry added.

Afghanistan 

Afghanistan has registered 234 new COVID-19 positive cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the number of patients infected with the disease to 51,594 in the country, said a statement of Public Health Ministry released here Thursday.

According to the statement, nine patients have died over the past 24 hours, bringing the number of COVID-19 related deaths to 2,135 since the outbreak of COVID-19 in February in Afghanistan.

A total of 662 patients have recovered over the period, totaling the number of recovered one to 40,582 in the country, the statement added. 

The Philippines

The Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines on Thursday reported 1,776 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection, bringing the total number in the country to 465,724.

The DOH said 533 more patients recovered, raising the total number of recoveries to 430,490, and the death toll climbed to 9,055 after seven more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH added.

The Philippines has tested over 6.18 million people so far. The Southeast Asian country has a population of about 110 million.  

Bangladesh

Bangladesh reported 1,234 new COVID-19 cases and 19 more deaths on Thursday, making the tally at 506,102 and death toll at 7,378, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said.

Brunei

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

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

Vietnam

Vietnam reported 12 new cases of COVID-19 infection on Thursday, bringing its total confirmed cases to 1,433 with 35 deaths from the disease so far, according to its Ministry of Health.

The new cases, including a South African and 11 Vietnamese citizens, recently entered the country from abroad and were quarantined upon arrival, said the ministry.