Health workers participate in a COVID-19 vaccine delivery system trial in Hyderabad, India, Jan 2, 2021. (MAHESH KUMAR A. / AP)

ISTANBUL / JERUSALEM / NEW DELHI / BAGHDAD / RAMALLAH / TEHRAN / DOHA / DHAKA / YANGON / SEOUL / KUALA LUMPUR / JAKARTA / HANOI / BANGKOK / ULAN BATOR / MANILA - Indian Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Saturday that COVID-19 vaccines would be made available for free across the country.

Vardhan said in a tweet that 30 million frontline workers will be included in the first phase of inoculations. The first batch will include 10 million healthcare workers. 

The government is also finalizing plans to inoculate 270 million people who are considered priority, including the elderly, by July, Vardhan said at a press conference.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javdekar said a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University being produced locally by the Serum Institute of India Ltd was approved Friday

Vardhan was at a hospital in Delhi to review the dry run of vaccination that was started Saturday morning across the country.

Vardhan appealed to people not to be misguided by rumours regarding the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.

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

Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javdekar said a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University being produced locally by the Serum Institute of India Ltd - the world’s largest vaccine maker by volume - was approved Friday.

“India is possibly the only country where four vaccine candidates are ready.” Javdekar said at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s briefing on Saturday in New Delhi. “Yesterday one vaccine has been approved for emergency use, Serum’s Covishield.”

The approval means India can begin to vaccinate its population of about 1.3 billion. 

The Drugs Controller General of India under the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) has yet to formally announce the approval. 

India wants to start administering the vaccine soon, most likely by Wednesday, said a person familiar with the matter.

The CDSCO is also considering emergency-use authorization applications for vaccines made by Pfizer Inc with Germany’s BioNTech, and by India’s Bharat Biotech.

India's tally rose to 10,305,788 on Saturday as 19,079 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, according to the latest data from the health ministry.

According to the data, the death toll climbed to 148,218 as 224 more deaths were logged.

There were 250,183 active cases while a total of 9,906,387 people have been discharged from hospitals after recovery.

Australia

Mask-wearing in Sydney will become compulsory in most indoor public venues as Australian health authorities battle to get on top of new virus clusters that have disrupted the nation’s peak summer holiday period.

All residents of Australia’s largest city will be required from Monday to wear masks when shopping, on public transport, in cinemas and casinos and in places of worship, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney on Saturday. Individuals breaching the rule, which will also apply in Wollongong, Central Coast and Blue Mountains, will be issued with a A$200 (US$154) fine, she said.

New South Wales added seven new local cases in the past 24 hours, increasing the size of a cluster originally confined to the Northern Beaches region of Sydney that spread to other areas of the city and has now infected more than 150 people. The premier on Saturday announced other restrictions, including stricter size limits on gym classes, weddings and funerals.

Meanwhile, the neighboring state of Victoria said it had detected 10 new virus cases acquired through local transmission, the majority linked to an outbreak in the capital Melbourne. 

A nearly empty platform is seen at a train station in Bangkok on Jan 2, 2021 after the capital announced partial lockdown measures to deal with a recent uptick in coronavirus cases. (MLADEN ANTONOV / AFP)

Thailand

Twenty-eight provinces in Thailand will be put under maximum restrictions as COVID-19 cases continued to rise, health officials announced on Saturday.

The Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) declared 28 provinces, including the capital Bangkok and surrounding provinces, as areas under maximum control from Jan 4 to Feb 1.

The measures, which need final approval from Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, include suspending some businesses and crowded activities that pose infection risks to the public, while recommending people in these provinces work from home and avoid unnecessary travel out of their province.

Earlier, Bangkok said it will temporarily close entertainment venues such as water and amusement parks as well as gyms after new cases in the capital were linked to such spots.

The move will also include playgrounds, flea markets, massage parlors and internet cafes from Saturday and follows an order to keep all schools in Bangkok closed until Jan 17. 

READ MORE: Bangkok to close schools for two weeks as infections rise

Thailand confirmed 216 new coronavirus cases and one more death on Saturday, taking the total number of infections to 7,379 cases and the number of deaths to 64.

The majority of the new cases were locally transmitted while two were imported from abroad, the government COVID-19 task force said.

Turkey

Turkey suspended all arrivals from the United Kingdom after it detected the new variant of the coronavirus among 15 people who traveled from the country, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said.

All 15 patients had been in quarantine since they were screened and no other cases of the new varaint have been detected in the country so far, Koca said in an online statement.

Turkey reported on Friday 12,203 COVID-19 cases, bringing its tally to 2,220,855, the health ministry announced.

The death toll rose by 212 to 21,093, while the total recoveries climbed by 14,110 to 2,114,760.

The Philippines

The Department of Health (DOH) of the Philippines on Saturday reported 1,097 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 476,916.

The death toll climbed to 9,253 after five more deaths were registered, the DOH said.

It added that 47 more patients have recovered, raising the total number of recoveries to 439,942.

South Korea

South Korea extended its current social distancing rules by two weeks as authorities continue to restrict private gatherings before nationwide vaccination is expected next month.

The government will maintain level 2.5 social distancing rules in the Seoul metropolitan area and level 2 in other parts of the country until Jan 17, Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol said Saturday in a televised briefing. Level 3 is the closest scenario to a lockdown in South Korea’s alert system.

Private gatherings for more than four people will continue to be banned although cram schools with less than 10 students for each class will be allowed to open, given the demand for childcare for working parents. Ski resorts will also open with less than a third of visitors of maximum capacity.

The country reported 824 new cases as of midnight on Friday, down from 1,029 a day before, a drop that officials said was likely due to less testing over the New Year holiday. The tally now stands at 62,593.

As much as 40 percent of recent cases have been linked to small gatherings, Kwon said.

Twenty-five more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 942. 

A man in protective suit sprays disinfectant as a precaution against the coronavirus near a makeshift clinic in Seoul, South Korea, Jan 2, 2021. (AHN YOUNG-JOON / AP)

Japan

Tokyo’s metropolitan government is set to urge the central government to declare a state of emergency, the Nikkei newspaper reported.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike will make that request directly to virus czar and economy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura on Saturday afternoon, the paper reported, citing multiple people with knowledge of the matter.

ALSO READ: Japanese look back on what could have been

Israel

Israel's Ministry of Health reported 8,567 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, raising the total number of infections in the country to 428,510.

Deaths rose by 38 to 3,356 while the number of patients in serious condition rose from 661 to 699, among a total of 1,105 hospitalized.

The total recoveries rose to 379,911 after 5,773 new recoveries were added. The number of active cases stood at 45,243.

The ministry also reported 18 new cases of a new variant, bringing the total number of patients who had tested positive for the new strain in Israel to 23.

The number of people vaccinated  has exceeded 950,000, about 10.2 percent of its 9.3 million population, since the vaccination campaign began on Dec 20, 2020.

Iraq

The Iraqi Ministry of Health reported on Friday 902 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the tally to 596,193.

The ministry also reported 11 more deaths, raising the death toll to 12,824.

The number of recoveries rose by 1,976 to 539,817.

In a separate statement, the ministry said it had added 12,000 hospital beds to the 45,000 beds across the country and built more than 60 makeshift hospitals for treating coronavirus cases.

It also said that it had raised the number of laboratories for testing COVID-19 from two to 70, and increased ventilators from 700 to 10,000, as well as adding over 30 spiral CT scan devices and providing the hospitals with medicines and other medical supplies, according to the statement.

Iran

Iran is cooperating with Cuba in the production of a COVID-19 vaccine, official IRNA news agency quoted an Iranian Health Ministry official as saying on Friday.

Iran will purchase vaccines from a foreign country and participate in the COVAX program, said Kianoush Jahanpour, spokesman of the Iran Food and Drug Administration (IFDA).

The spokesman said that tests and trials of a Tehran-Havana vaccine were underway in Cuba.

Palestine

A senior Palestinian official said on Friday that the country has logged 18 fatalities from COVID-19, as a complete lockdown continued for the fourth consecutive weekend amid the pandemic.

Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila said in a daily report that the ministry registered 11 deaths in the West Bank, four in the Gaza Strip, and three in East Jerusalem.

She also said that the ministry recorded 1,450 new COVID-19 cases and 2,088 recoveries in the Palestinian territories, adding that 116 patients remained in intensive care units.

"Since the outbreak of the coronavirus in Palestine in March last year, the health ministry has recorded 156,815 cases, including 1,550 deaths and 134,906 recoveries," al-Kaila said.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh reported 990 new COVID-19 cases and 17 deaths on Friday, taking the tally to 514,500 and death toll to 7,576, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said.

The total number of recoveries rose by 1,197 to 458,656, said the DGHS.

Myanmar

The number of COVID-19 cases in Myanmar has risen to 125,042 as of Friday, according to a release from the Health and Sports Ministry.

Myanmar logged 412 new cases and 15 more deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 2,697, according to the release.

A total of 107,777 patients have been discharged from hospitals so far.

Qatar

The Qatari Health Ministry on Friday announced 208 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 144,042, the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.

Meanwhile, 134 more patients have recovered from the virus, bringing the overall recoveries to 141,556, while the death toll remained at 245 for the fourth day running, according to a ministry statement quoted by QNA.

Malaysia

Malaysia will extend the recovery phase of "Movement Control Order" measures to contain COVID-19 till March 31, Defense Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said on Friday.

Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who coordinates the implementation of COVID-19 restrictions in the country, said in a statement that any activities that make it hard to comply with physical distancing are prohibited.

The announcement came on a day the health mMinistry reported 2,068 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the national total to 115,078.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a separate statement that two of the new cases were imported while the rest were locally transmitted.

Three more deaths pushed the death toll to 474.

Of the remaining 23,433 active cases, 126 were in intensive care units and 54 of those were in need of assisted breathing. 

Indonesia

The number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 8,072 within one day to 751,270, while the death toll climbed by 191 to 22,329, the Health Ministry said on Friday.

Specifically, Jakarta recorded 1,956 new cases, West Java 1,504, Central Java 897, East Java 887 and South Sulawesi 550. 

According to the ministry, 6,839 more people were discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recoveries to 617,936.

Vietnam

Vietnam has detected its first imported case of the new coronavirus variant that is spreading rapidly around Britain, the health ministry said on Saturday.

The variant was detected in a 44-year-old woman returning to Vietnam from Britain, who was quarantined upon arrival and was confirmed positive for the virus on Dec 24, the ministry said in a statement.

On Friday, Vietnam reported nine new cases, bringing its total confirmed cases to 1,474 with 35 deaths, according to the ministry.

All the new cases involved Vietnamese citizens who recently entered the country from abroad and were quarantined upon arrival, said the ministry.

Mongolia

The number of COVID-19 infections in Mongolia rose to 1,242 after 22 new cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, the National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Saturday.

Of the new cases, 15 were locally transmitted while the rest were imported from Europe on a chartered flight, said Amarjargal Ambaselmaa, head of the center's surveillance department.

Meanwhile, 18 more patients have recovered from the disease, raising the number of recoveries to 855.=

The Asian country has so far recorded one COVID-19-related death since confirming its first case in March 2020.