People cross a street in Melbourne on Feb 12, 2021. (CON CHRONIS / AFP)

SYDNEY / KABUL / NEW DELHI / KUWAIT CITY / BEIRUT / ULAN BATOR / WELLINGTON / MANILA  / ANKARA / TASHKENT - Australia’s second-most populous city will enter a five-day snap coronavirus lockdown, authorities said on Friday, barring spectators for much of the Australian Open tennis tournament.

A fresh COVID-19 cluster linked to a quarantine hotel in Melbourne, the capital of Victoria state, reached 13 cases as of Thursday midnight, as authorities rushed to quash the spread of the virus. All of those infections were linked to the highly contagious UK variant.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews announced the lockdown for the state, starting at midnight on Friday, calling it a “short, sharp circuit breaker” banning public gatherings, home auctions, weddings and religious gatherings.

“We must assume that there are further cases in the community than we have positive results for, and that it is moving at a velocity that has not been seen anywhere in our country over the course of these last 12 months,” Andrews told reporters, noting the high transmission rate of the UK variant.

ALSO READ: Israel health ministry pushes law requiring shot or test in jobs

Afghanistan

Afghanistan reported 28 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, raising its national tally to 55,473, including 4,656 active cases, the country's Ministry of Public Health said in a statement.

Meanwhile, 111 people recovered during the past 24 hours while three deaths were reported, raising the death toll to 2,427.

India

India's COVID-19 tally rose to 10,880,603 on Friday as 9,309 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, said the latest data from the health ministry.

According to the official data, the death toll mounted to 155,447 as 87 COVID-19 patients died since Thursday morning.

There are still 135,926 active cases in the country, while 10,589,230 people have been discharged so far from hospitals after medical treatment.

Iraq

The Iraqi Health Ministry reported on Thursday 2,369 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily record in 2021, bringing the tally to 636,908.

The ministry also reported four new deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 13,144, while the total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 994 to 603,814.

Israel's Ministry of Health reported 5,229 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, raising the total tally in the country to 714,056.

The death toll from the COVID-19 in Israel reached 5,272 after 28 new fatalities were added, while the number of patients in serious condition decreased from 1,031 to 992, out of 1,551 hospitalized patients.

An elderly man checks his body temperature with a non-contact infrared thermometer while commuting on a train in Tokyo on Feb 9, 2021. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP)

Japan

Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told a government advisory panel that it’s necessary to maintain a state of emergency for 10 areas of the country, including Tokyo and Osaka.

Nishimura said the medical system is still under strain and the number of elderly people with infections isn’t dropping.

Japan’s health ministry panel is expected to approve the use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, public broadcaster NHK reported citing unidentified person.

The panel starts meeting at 6 pm local time and approval would pave the way for the government to officially approve the vaccine “soon,” NHK said. That comes as a clinical trial in Japan of 160 patients confirmed an increase in virus-neutralizing antibodies, it said. Kyodo separately reported that the official approval by the ministry would come on Sunday, bringing forward the decision by one day.

Japan’s first batch of COVID-19 vaccine arrived on Friday, local media reported.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has said vaccinations would begin from the middle of next week, starting with some 10,000 health workers. The government hopes to secure enough supplies for the whole populace by mid-year.

About 400,000 doses arrived at Narita International Airport, near Tokyo, on Friday morning aboard a flight from Brussels, Kyodo reported.

Kuwait

Kuwait reported on Thursday 1,048 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 175,031.

The Kuwaiti Health Ministry also announced five more deaths, taking the death toll to 985. 

Lebanon

Lebanon recorded on Thursday 3,136 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections to 331,159, the Health Ministry reported.

Meanwhile, death toll from the virus went up by 63 to 3,866.

Mongolia

The World Bank has approved an additional financing of US$50.7 million to help Mongolia get access to COVID-19 vaccines, the bank's office in Mongolia said Friday.

The financing was approved within the framework of the bank's COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Project.

Mongolia reported 40 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking its total tally to 2,247, the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases said Friday.

Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines are pictured during a mass vaccination campaign in Ronda, Spain, on Feb 11, 2021. (JORGE GUERRERO / AFP)

New Zealand

New Zealand's first batch of Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is set to arrive in New Zealand next week subject to transportation plans and quality temperature control, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Friday.

 "We have been working behind the scenes to secure the timely arrival of vaccines for our border workers and their families and it's great they will arrive well within our scheduled timeframes," Ardern told a press conference.

New Zealand reported two cases of COVID-19 in managed isolation on Friday. 

There are no new cases in the community.

Both of the new border cases came from Britain and have remained in Auckland's managed isolation facilities, according to the Ministry of Health.

Twelve previously reported cases have now recovered. The total number of active cases in New Zealand is 44, and the total number of confirmed cases is 1,970, said a ministry statement.

South Korea

South Korea reported 403 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Thursday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 82,837.

The daily caseload was down from 504 in the previous day, but it hovered above 100 since Nov. 8 last year owing to small cluster infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province as well as imported cases.

Eleven more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 1,507. The total fatality rate stood at 1.82 percent.

The Philippines 

The Philippines plans to allow more businesses, including cinemas and public attractions, to reopen or expand their operations soon, as the country moves to revive its pandemic-hit economy, the presidential spokesman said on Friday.

The Southeast Asian country has the second highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the region, but Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said improving hospital capacity provided room to ease more curbs.

Turkey

Turkey on Thursday reported 7,590 new COVID-19 infections, taking its tally to 2,564,427, the Turkish Health Ministry said.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 94 to 27,187, while the total recoveries climbed to 2,453,096 after 7,811 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours.

READ MORE: Thailand to begin human trials for COVID-19 vaccine in March

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan has launched a process to register Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, Uzbek Health Ministry press service said on Thursday.

According to the ministry, Uzbekistan's special commission against coronavirus pandemic has reviewed the results of the third stage clinical trials of Sputnik V provided by the Russian Federation.

"And it was approved that it is possible to start the certification and registration process at the initial stage," the report said.