Medical workers wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) collect PCR COVID-19 coronavirus test samples at the Urban Institute for Disease Prevention and Control in Bangkok on Jan 11, 2021. (JACK TAYLOR / AFP)

GAZA / JERUSALEM / AMMAN / BAGHDAD / YANGON / BANGKOK / TEHRAN / KABUL / HANOI / SINGAPORE - Thailand’s Tourism Minister said on Monday he had proposed a plan to allow foreigners to quarantine in some of the country’s many golf resorts to boost the ailing tourism sector during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are discussing with the Public Health Ministry and the country’s coronavirus taskforce to offer hotel and golf quarantine for tourists with medical certificates,” Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn told reporters.

Foreign tourists would be able to spend the two-week quarantine period at a specified resort and move around in the hotel area and also play golf, he said, rather than just isolating in their rooms.

The plan, which is subject to the approval of the cabinet, comes as the Southeast Asian country grapples with a second wave of coronavirus infections after managing to largely contain community spread for months.

Thailand has reported a relatively low 10,547 COVID-19 infections and 67 deaths, though since several clusters emerged in December the country has been recording several hundred new cases a day.

Japan

The Japanese government has started preparations to expand a state of emergency to the western Japanese prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo, Jiji news agency reported on Monday.

The three prefectures on Saturday asked the government for expansion of the state of emergency, already in place for Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures, to include their region in an effort to contain the latest COVID-19 outbreak.

The Japanese government will start large-scale PCR testing for the coronavirus in big cities as early as March, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Monday.

The test will be given for free at places such as college campuses, airports and hotels in Tokyo, Osaka and other major cities, the paper said without specifying where it got the information. By expanding testing, the government aims to gain a better grasp of overall infections including asymptomatic cases, according to the newspaper.

Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases said authorities have found a new strain of the coronavirus in four passengers arriving from Brazil.

The new variant has similarities to those found in the UK and South Africa, the NIID said in a statement Sunday. The information about the new strain is limited to its genetic make-up, and it’s difficult to determine at the moment how infectious it is, the institute said.

Tokyo found 1,219 new coronavirus cases on Monday, the local government said, marking a seventh straight day of more than 1,000 daily infections.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan reported 46 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising its national tally to 53,584, including 8,588 active cases, the country's Ministry of Public Health said.

"Laboratories conducted 1,886 tests during the past 24 hours, out of the total tests 46 were positive COVID-19 cases in 13 provinces of Afghanistan's 34 provinces," the ministry said in a statement.

Laboratories across Afghanistan have completed 216,550 tests since the outbreak of the pandemic in February.

Australia

A three-day lockdown of Australia's third largest city of Brisbane will be lifted after no new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 were recorded over the weekend, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk revealed Monday.

The lockdown was introduced in response to a hotel quarantine worker testing positive for a new more contagious strain of COVID-19 being reported in Britain.

While the blanket lockdown was scheduled to end at 6 p.m. local time on Monday, Palaszczuk said that additional restrictions would remain in place for the next 10 days to ensure the strain does not re-emerge in the community. Measures included mandating face masks for indoor public areas and reducing patron limits on bars, restaurants and other venues.

"We want to make sure that that incubation period, that 14 days, has totally lapsed before we return back to normal," Palaszczuk said.

Meanwhile, Sydney officially recorded three new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 on Monday, all of which were linked to a known cluster which totalled 26 cases.

ALSO READ: Report: Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo ask govt for state of emergency

Palestine

The Palestinian Authority said on Sunday it expects to receive its first COVID-19 vaccine doses in March under a deal with drugmaker AstraZeneca, and accused Israel of shirking a duty to ensure vaccines are available in occupied territory.

While Israel has already become the world leader in vaccinations per capita, Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip have yet to secure their first supplies.

Yasser Bozyeh, the Palestinian general director of public health, told Reuters that in addition to reaching an agreement in principle with AstraZeneca, the Palestinians had also sought supplies from Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Russia, which has developed the Sputnik V vaccine.

Supplies would also come through a World Health Organization vaccine programme for poor and middle income countries.

Israel

Israel's ministry of Health reported 5,912 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing the total number in the country to 489,995.

The death toll from COVID-19 in Israel reached 3,663 with 30 new fatalities, while the number of  patients in serious condition increased from 964 to 1,056, out of 1,693 hospitalized patients.

Israel has started COVID-19 vaccination for all teachers and other educational workers, the Ministry of Education said Sunday.

The Israeli education system has more than 203,000 employees, who have daily contact with more than 2.4 million pupils when there is no lockdown.

Jordan

Jordan will start a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign from Jan 13, Health Minister Nathir Obeidat said Sunday.

During a press conference in the capital Amman, Obeidat said the quantity of COVID-19 vaccines is enough for 20 percent of Jordan's population, calling on the public not to believe and spread rumors about the vaccine.

Iran

Iran's health ministry reported 6,208 daily COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the total nationwide infections to 1,292,614.

The pandemic has so far claimed 56,262 lives in Iran, up by 91 in the past 24 hours, said Sima Sadat Lari, the spokeswoman for Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, during her daily briefing.

Of the newly infected, 642 were hospitalized, said Lari.

Iraq

The Iraqi Ministry of Health reported on Sunday 607 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total nationwide infections to 602,938.

The Ministry also reported 14 new deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 12,895, and 1,752 more recovered cases, bringing the total recoveries to 556,742.

A total of 4,867,637 tests have been carried out across the country since the outbreak of the disease in February 2020, with 30,794 done during the day, according to the statement.

READ MORE: NHK: Japan mulls approving Pfizer vaccine for ages 16 and up

A photo taken on Jan 10, 2021 shows a woman and child standing before the frozen Han river and Seoul city skyline. (ED JONES / AFP)

South Korea

South Korean President Moon Jae-in vowed to offer COVID-19 vaccines to all of the country's population free of charge according to priorities, saying the vaccination campaign can start next month. He said his government will continue to spur a homegrown vaccine development while keeping an examination on the indigenous COVID-19 treatment currently under way.

The government announced that it had secured COVID-19 vaccine doses for 56 million people, including doses for 10 million each from AstraZeneca and Pfizer, 20 million from Moderna, 6 million from Janssen and 10 million from the COVAX facility.

In the latest tally, South Korea reported a total of 69,114 COVID-19 cases and 1,140 deaths out of the country's 52 million population. The daily caseload fell below 500 in 41 days after hovering around 1,000 in December.

The local virus spread showed signs of moderating this year as the government's five-tier social-distancing guideline was raised to the second-highest level that is scheduled to be kept in place for six weeks through Jan 17.

Moon said the government began Monday to distribute its third round of relief checks to 2.8 million small-business owners and the self-employed as well as 870,000 people vulnerable to job losses.

Under the tightened distancing rule, high-risk facilities such as karaoke bars, indoor sports facilities, night clubs and private cram schools were forced to stop operation, while such brick-and-mortar businesses as coffee shops, cafes, restaurants, internet cafes and beauty salons were allowed to open with restrictions.

The micro-business owners will be given relief grants of between 1 million won (US$910) and 3 million won (US$2,730), less than a monthly rent for mom-and-pop stores especially in the Seoul metropolitan area.

Moon admitted that the relief payment would not be enough to cover their losses, but he hoped that it can be the priming water to jump-start the recovery of the domestic economy. 

Myanmar

The number of COVID-19 cases in Myanmar has increased to 131,186 as of Monday as 582 new cases were reported, according to a release from the Ministry of Health and Sports.

The death toll of COVID-19 reached 2,858 with 12 newly reported on Monday in the country, the release said.

Qatar

The Qatari health ministry on Monday announced 203 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 146,068, the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.

Mongolia

Mongolia's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) confirmed 13 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the national tally to 1,442.

"A total of 14,216 tests for COVID-19 were conducted at seven laboratories across the country in the last 24 hours and 13 of them tested positive," Amarjargal Ambaselmaa, head of the NCCD's Surveillance Department, said at a press conference.

The latest confirmed cases were locally transmitted or reported in the capital city Ulan Bator, said Ambaselmaa.

India

India's COVID-19 tally rose to 10,466,595 on Monday as 16,311 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, said the latest data from the health ministry.

According to the data, the death toll mounted to 151,160 after 161 COVID-19 patients died since Sunday morning.

There are still 222,526 active cases in the country, while 10,092,909 people have been discharged so far from hospitals after medical treatment.

Meanwhile, the Indian government has ramped up COVID-19 testing facilities across the country, as over 180 million tests have been conducted so far.

Fiji

More than 19,000 Fijian families most-affected by the impacts of COVID-19 will receive 100 Fijian dollars a month over the next four months through digital cash transfers.

According to Fijivillage news website, this is being done through the Fiji National Philanthropic Trust Cash Assistance Program - a partnership between Save the Children Fiji, Fiji Council of Social Services and Vodafone Fiji.

The first cash transfer to households commenced before Christmas with the final payment due at the end of March.

Indonesia 

Indonesia approved China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd shots for emergency use, paving the way for Southeast Asia’s largest economy to start its inoculation program.

The COVID-19 vaccine’s efficacy rate was about 65 percent during the most recent trials in Bandung, Penny Lukito, head of the food and drug regulator said in a press briefing on Monday.

Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the 15 million doses of the raw materials from Sinovac will be received on Tuesday.

Indonesia is struggling to rein in the worst coronavirus outbreak in Southeast Asia, with its positivity rate exceeding 31 percent on Monday in a sign of insufficient testing. The World Health Organization recommends keeping the rate below 5 percent.

As of Monday afternoon, there have been more than 800,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in Indonesia. The coronavirus epidemic has claimed more than 24,000 lives across the archipelago, according to the Health Ministry.  

Malaysia 

Malaysia will place most of the country under some form of lockdown for two weeks starting Wednesday as it intensifies efforts to quell the surge in coronavirus infections.

While five essential sectors including manufacturing, construction and agriculture, will remain open, interstate travel will be banned throughout the country, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a televised address on Monday.

The decision came after the government forecast daily cases could jump to 8,000 by late March or late May, based on a predictive modeling analysis. Daily cases hit a record-high last week.

Malaysia has struggled to contain a fresh wave of infections fueled by a local election in September.

Pakistan

Pakistan’s hospital admissions and deaths have declined after peaking in December, Asad Umar, the planning commission minister who’s leading the nation’s virus nerve center, said in a Twitter post.

The nation announced last week is would reopen schools in phases from January 18. Pakistan has seen about 505,000 infections and 10,500 deaths from the virus. Deaths have declined for three straight weeks.

Residents wearing government-imposed face masks and face shields to protect them from COVID-19 disease arrive to pray at their relatives’ graves ahead of a weeklong closure of cemeteries on the annual observance of All Saints’ Day in Manila on Oct 28, 2020. (PHOTO / AFP)

The Philippines

The Philippines targets to vaccinate its entire population of more than 100 million people by 2023, officials said.

Vaccine rollout may start as early as February, although bulk of the inoculations will begin in the second half of 2021, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez said at a Senate hearing Monday.

The government is finalizing supply deals with AstraZeneca Plc., Serum Institute of India, Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE, Johnson & Johnson, Sinovac Biotech Ltd., Moderna Inc. and Russia’s Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, he said.

Herd immunity may be achieved this year, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said at the same hearing, as the government targets to buy 148 million coronavirus vaccine doses to inoculate more than half of the population in 2021. Some 82.5 billion pesos (US$1.7 billion) have been allocated for vaccine purchases this year, bulk of which are from loans.

Vietnam

Vietnam recorded one new confirmed case of  COVID-19 on Monday, raising its total tally to 1,515 with 35 deaths, according to its Ministry of Health.

The new case is a Polish expert who recently entered Vietnam from abroad and was quarantined upon arrival.

The ministry also reported that a total of 1,361 patients have been given all-clear as of Monday.

Singapore

Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 22 new imported COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 58,929.

On Monday, 32 more cases of COVID-19 infection have been discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities. In all, 58,668 have fully recovered from the infection and have been discharged from hospitals or community care facilities, the ministry said.