Patients breath with the help of oxygen masks inside a banquet hall temporarily converted into a COVID -19 coronavirus ward in New Delhi on April 27, 2021. (PHOTO / AFP)
BEIRUT / ANKARA / SEOUL - The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday it was stepping up efforts to help India as hospitals there struggled to cope with a huge surge in coronavirus cases, including bringing in oxygen and other essential supplies.
India's death toll is now nearing 200,000, and some hospitals are turning away coronavirus patients as they do not have enough oxygen supplies and beds.
Supplies from Britain, including 100 ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators, arrived in Delhi, said Reuters partner ANI, while France is sending oxygen generators able to provide 250 patients with a year’s supply of the gas, its embassy said.
WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said the crisis had worsened due to mass gatherings of people, more contagious variants and low vaccination rates.
"We are working with the government to bring in essential supplies like oxygen and alleviate the immediate situation," Jasarevic said.
The WHO was providing 4,000 oxygen concentrators, which only require an energy source, he said. Mobile field hospitals are being set up and laboratory supplies provided for testing.
India ordered its armed forces on Monday to help tackle surging new coronavirus infections.
In a meeting with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said oxygen would be sent to hospitals from armed forces reserves and retired medical military personnel would join COVID-19 health facilities.
Where possible, military medical infrastructure will be made available to civilians, a government statement said, as new coronavirus infections hit a record peak for a fifth day.
Genomic sequences of coronaviruses shared on the GISAID database show the B.1.617-type variant is becoming more prevalent in India, where it was first detected. The variant was present in 38 percent of the SARS-CoV-2 genomes collected in India in March, up from 25 percent in February, and was in 10 genomes in April, GISAID said in an email Tuesday.
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 17,636,307 on Tuesday with 323,144 new cases recorded in the past 24 hours, said the federal health ministry. This was the sixth consecutive day when over 300,000 cases were registered in a single day, though there was a fall of nearly 30,000 new cases in a day compared to those reported on Monday.
This photo taken on April 26, 2021 shows an airport worker getting a vaccination for the COVID-19 at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. (PHOTO / AFP)
Thailand
Thailand is reworking its vaccine strategy as a month-long soft lockdown to contain its worst wave of Covid-19 infections deepens an economic crisis and risks plans for reopening the crucial tourism industry.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha will meet Wednesday with industry groups, including the Thai Chamber of Commerce and the Tourism Council of Thailand, to discuss ways to accelerate a vaccine rollout that so far has reached less than 1% of the population. The meeting may outline the private sector’s role in securing vaccines for its employees, after that was initially ruled out in a national plan to vaccinate half the population by the end of the year.
Prayuth is under pressure to tighten restrictions on businesses and travel as an outbreak that began from nightlife venues in Bangkok overwhelms hospitals and healthcare facilities. The flareup has forced the government to set up field hospitals and convert hotels into treatment facilities amid calls for accelerated vaccinations and a lockdown of at least the capital city.
Thailand’s bet on AstraZeneca Plc to meet the bulk of its vaccine needs, a move slammed by the opposition as a one-horse bet, is faltering, with officials now scrambling for supply from makers including Pfizer Inc., Russia’s Gamaleya Institute and Johnson & Johnson. While neighbors such as Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam haven’t fared much better in their vaccine rollouts, tourism-reliant Thailand’s plan to reopen its borders hinges on achieving herd immunity.
“The key to exit from this crisis is vaccines,” said Somprawin Manprasert, chief economist at Bangkok-based Bank of Ayudhya Pcl’s research unit. “Slow vaccination will delay the reopening and cause further damage to the economy.”
Thailand reported 15 new coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, setting a daily record for the third time in four days in its worst-outbreak yet, as an expert warned of big problems ahead from insufficient testing.
"If we are not screening people who can quietly spread the virus, there will be subsequent outbreaks and mutations, rendering immunisation ineffective," Thiravat Hemachudha, head of the Thai Red Cross Emerging Infectious Diseases Centre wrote on Facebook.
Australia
Australia is banning all flights from India until at least May 15 as the South Asian nation battles what Prime Minister Scott Morrison described as a “terrible crisis.”
Australia’s system of mainly quarantining returned residents from overseas in inner-city hotels has been responsible for leaks into the community that’s triggered snap lockdowns in Brisbane and Perth in the past month.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh's drug regulator on Tuesday approved the Russian Sputnik V vaccine for emergency use against COVID-19, signalling that clearance for China's Sinopharm shot would follow very soon as a supply line from India falters.
Dhaka, facing a second wave of the pandemic, is racing to secure more vaccines after its bigger neighbour halted exports of the AstraZeneca -Oxford University shot in response to a record surge in domestic infections.
Lebanon
Lebanon registered on Monday a remarkable drop in the daily COVID-19 infections by recording 642 new cases, lower than over 1,500 cases on average in the past 10 days, the Health Ministry reported.
This pushed the total number of confirmed cases to 521,581 while the death toll from the virus went up by 29 to 7,171 in the country, it said.
Health experts attributed the drop in cases to vaccination and immunity against the virus among 40 percent of the population.
Meanwhile, Lebanese caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan said Monday that the ministry will establish big centers all over Lebanon to vaccinate 5,000 people daily during this summer.
Malaysia
Malaysia’s Transport Ministry will halt entry of Indian nationals and passengers as well as implement strict controls for ships from the South Asian country docking at the nation’s ports.
Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong said in a Facebook posting that he has informed port operators as well as domestic and foreign airlines to comply with the decision by National Security Council following a meeting on Monday.
ALSO READ: Japan's PM says tackling virus takes precedence over election
Turkey
Turkey announced on Monday that it will impose a full lockdown in a bid to curb the rise in COVID-19 cases.
The lockdown will last from April 29 to May 17, with an aim to lower the daily cases below 5,000, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a press conference after a cabinet meeting.
Intercity travels will be restricted to permission only, intercity public transport will operate at 50 percent capacity, while schools in all levels will suspend face-to-face education, he said.
But the manufacturing and food sectors will be exempt from the restrictions, Erdogan added.
Turkey on Monday reported 37,312 new COVID-19 cases, including 2,716 symptomatic patients, as the total number of positive cases in the country reached 4,667,281, according to its health ministry.
The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 353 to 38,711, while the total recoveries climbed to 4,121,671 after 48,027 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours.
Japan
Japan will open a mass vaccination center in central Tokyo next month, officials said on Tuesday, part of the country’s bid to speed up its COVID-19 inoculation campaign as the Olympic Games looms.
No decision has been made on which vaccine will be used or how many people will get shots each day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters.
“We will announce the details once the defence ministry and local authorities have come up with a plan,” Kato said. The government will also support innoculation efforts in Osaka, in western Japan, he added.
Japan imposed a third state of emergency in its major population centres on Sunday, as the country attempts to combat a fourth wave of infections with just 87 days remaining until the Olympics is scheduled to begin.
The Defense Ministry tweeted it had been asked by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to set up the centre by May 24 with plans for it to operate for three months. The facility will service residents in the capital and the surrounding prefectures of Saitama, Chiba, and Kanagawa.
The Nikkei newspaper reported on Sunday the Tokyo centre would inoculate about 10,000 people a day, while the Kyodo news service on Monday reported the government planned to use the Moderna Inc COVID-19 vaccine.
Malaysia
Malaysia’s Transport Ministry will halt entry of Indian nationals and passengers as well as implement strict controls for ships from the South Asian country docking at the nation’s ports.
Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong said in a Facebook posting that he has informed port operators as well as domestic and foreign airlines to comply with the decision by National Security Council following a meeting on Monday.
Pakistan
Pakistan reported 874 deaths in the week ended April 25, the worst week since the pandemic started more than a year ago. The South Asian nation that neighbors India is going through a new wave of infections and government officials are warning this one may be the worst yet.
South Korea
South Korea reported 512 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Monday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 119,898.
The daily caseload was slightly up from 500 in the previous day, but it stayed below 600 for two days.
The daily number of infections hovered in triple figures since Nov. 8 last year due to small cluster infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province as well as imported cases.
Of the new cases, 116 were Seoul residents and 191 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.
Thirty-five cases were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 8,251.
South Korea reported 86 more cases of COVID-19 variants for the past week, bringing the total number of such cases to 535, the health authorities said Tuesday. Among the newly confirmed cases spotted since April 20, 34 were imported while the remaining 52 were locally transmitted, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
Cambodia
Cambodia on Tuesday imposed restrictions on travelers from India to avert the spread of a more infectious COVID-19 variant, B1617, the country's Health Minister Mam Bunheng said.
The ban will take effect from Thursday, he said in a statement.
"The Ministry of Health decides to ban all Indians and foreign travelers who have been in India or have traveled through India from entering Cambodia for a while until further notice," Bunheng said.
He added that foreign travelers who have a history of visiting India within the last three weeks will also be barred from entering Cambodia.
The Philippines
The Philippines will ban travellers coming from India to prevent the spread of a new variant blamed for a huge surge in cases in the South Asian nation, a senior official said on Tuesday.
Travellers coming from India or those with travel history to that country within the last 14 days before arrival will be banned from entering the Philippines from April 29 to May 14, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement. Nearby Cambodia also announced a similar ban, effecti
Iran
Iran has found three suspected cases of the coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa, Health Minister Saeed Namaki said on Tuesday, calling it an alarm bell after COVID-19 deaths hit a daily record of 496 a day earlier.
Iran, the epicentre of the pandemic in the Middle East and which is grappling with a fourth wave, reported 462 deaths on Tuesday. Some 70,532 people have died out of 2.4 million cases, according to official statistics.
“Unfortunately we received a report about three cases of the South African virus, and we are making more checks to confirm this,” Namaki said in remarks carried by state TV.
“We are also checking cases of Indian visitors infected with the coronavirus and hope that they don’t carry the (Indian) mutated virus,” Namaki said. “In any case, these alarm bells tell us that we need to increase social distancing and better follow health precautions.”
The Iranian health ministry reported on Monday 496 more COVID-19 deaths, the highest figure registered in Iran since the beginning of the pandemic, which has already claimed 70,070 lives in the country.
According to the daily briefing of Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, 21,026 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the country's total infections to 2,417,230.
A total of 1,892,229 people have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals across the country, while 5,244 remain in intensive care units, it said.
READ MORE: Iran to bar travelers from India over COVID-19 variant
Qatar
The Qatari health ministry on Monday announced 703 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 202,904, the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.
Meanwhile, 1,578 more recovered from the virus, bringing the overall recoveries to 183,100, while the fatalities increased by nine to 437, according to a ministry statement quoted by QNA.
A total of 1,884,662 persons in Qatar have taken lab tests for COVID-19 so far, while the total number of vaccine doses administered is 1,442,708.
Iraq
The Iraqi Ministry of Health reported on Monday 6,536 new coronavirus cases, raising the total nationwide number to 1,037,858.
A statement by the ministry also reported 46 new COVID-19 deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 15,303, while the total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 7,910 to 913,211.
A total of 9,155,729 tests have been carried out across the country since the outbreak of the disease in February 2020, with 39,120 done during the day.
Meanwhile, 8,951 people were vaccinated against the COVID-19 during the past 24 hours across the country, bringing the total number of doses received to 313,066.
Israel
Israel's Ministry of Health reported 86 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the total number of cases in the country to 838,100.
The death toll from the virus increased by one to 6,353, while the number of patients in serious condition decreased from 146 to 145, out of 220 hospitalized patients.
The total recoveries in Israel rose to 830,085 after 128 newly recovered cases were added, while the number of active cases decreased to 1,662, lowest in over a year.
Myanmar
The number of COVID-19 cases in Myanmar has increased to 142,740 as of Monday, according to a release from the Ministry of Health and Sports.
A total of 18 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the country on Monday.
No new death was reported on Monday, leaving the death toll at 3,207, the release said.
According to the ministry's figures, a total of 131,945 patients have been discharged from hospitals and over 2.56 million samples have been tested for COVID-19 so far, including 1,517 samples tested on Monday.
Mongolia
Mongolia reported 1,098 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing its national tally to 32,437, the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Monday.
Six of the latest confirmed cases were imported from abroad, and the remaining ones were locally transmitted, the NCCD said in a statement.
Eight more deaths were reported, bringing the death toll to 88, the center said.
Meanwhile, 733 more people were discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 17,543.
