This photo taken on April 28, 2021 and provided shows South Korean soldiers sitting after receiving the first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at the Armed Forces Capital Hospital in Seongnam, south of Seoul. (PHOTO / AFP)

SEOUL / JERUSALEM - Malaysia will allow people to use AstraZeneca’s vaccine on a voluntary basis and exclude the shots from its inoculation program amid public concern about safety. The country, which received its first batch of the shots through the global Covax facility late last week, will allow those ages 18 and above to take the vaccine on a “first come, first served” basis.

Malaysia recorded its highest number of daily cases in two months, with the Health Ministry reporting 3,142 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the national total to 401,593.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that 13 of the new cases are imported and 3,129 are local transmissions.

Another 15 deaths have been reported, pushing the death toll to 1,477.

Malaysia has seen a resurgence of the outbreak following the relaxation of restrictive measures. Wednesday marked the first time that daily new cases had exceeded 3,000 since late February.

Japan

Japan’s government is planning to introduce vaccine passports to help restart international travel, the Kyodo news agency reported on Wednesday.

The passports would take the form of scannable smartphone apps that carry COVID-19 inoculation information, Kyodo said, citing government sources.

Thailand

Thailand’s top business groups offered to join the government in a mass vaccination rollout from June as the Southeast Asian nation grapples with its worst outbreak since the pandemic began.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha met with representatives of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, the Thai Bankers Association and the Tourism Council of Thailand on Wednesday and identified specific roles for the private sector in the rollout that aims to cover 70 percent of the nation’s population by the end of this year.

South Korea

South Korea prioritized securing COVID-19 vaccines for a continued economic recovery, after announcing the first-quarter data on gross domestic product (GDP) that restored a pre-pandemic level, Minister of Economy and Finance Hong Nam-ki who serves as the acting prime minister said on Wednesday.

South Korea said on Wednesday it will offer some exemptions to mandatory quarantine measures for people who have been fully inoculated against COVID-19, in an effort to encourage more vaccinations.

South Korea has so far vaccinated 4 percent of its 52 million strong population, but has set an ambitious target of giving shots to 70 percent of its people by September and reaching herd immunity by November.

From May 5, residents who have had both coronavirus vaccine shots will not have to undergo the mandatory two-week quarantine for people who have been in contact with a confirmed patient or have returned from overseas travel, Yoon Tae-ho, a senior health ministry official, told a briefing.

The exemption will only apply for those with a negative COVID-19 test and who show no related symptoms.

It will not apply to residents arriving from nations such as South Africa and Brazil where coronavirus variants are prevalent and to people who are vaccinated in foreign countries.

South Korea has procured a total 192 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, enough to administer close to twice its population, including those from Pfizer, AstraZeneca Plc, Moderna Inc, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax.

It has inoculated around 2.68 million people so far with AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccines and aims to vaccinate 12 million people by June, although there has been growing vaccine hesitancy due to concerns over reports of blood clotting disorders.

South Korea reported 775 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 120,673, with 1,821 deaths.

Pakistan 

Pakistan recorded more than two hundred COVID-19 deaths in a day for the first time since the start of the pandemic on Tuesday, as the government said it was considering stricter lockdowns.

A total of 201 new deaths were recorded on Tuesday, bringing the country's overall death toll from the virus to 17,530, according to the National Command Operation Center (NCOC), which oversees the government's pandemic response. The previous highest daily death count was 157 recorded on April 23.

Kazakhstan 

Kazakhstan on Tuesday launched its own, domestically-developed vaccine for mass inoculations against COVID-19, starting with popular locations such as shopping malls.

Almost a million people in the former Soviet republic of 19 million have already received the Russian-developed Sputnik V vaccine that Kazakhstan both imports and produces domestically.

The Central Asian republic's sovereign wealth fund has also ordered a million doses of Chinese-developed Sinopharm vaccine.

But this week, the oil-exporting country made its own vaccine available to the general public, with Healthcare Minister Alexei Tsoi receiving a jab in front of the media.

Like Sputnik V, the QazVac vaccine is delivered in two shots with a three-week interval.

QazVac is currently in a stage 3 trial to be completed by July. All 222 people who participated in the first two stages have developed immunity to COVID-19, with no major side-effects reported, according to its Kazakh developer, the Research Institute for Biological Safety Problems.

In Mega Park, one of the main shopping venues in Almaty, Kazakhstan's biggest city, QazVac was the only available option on Tuesday. Most of the people queuing up for the shot said the brand of vaccine did not matter to them.

Vietnam 

Vietnam faces a “very high” threat of a new virus outbreak, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said, with the government concerned over possible new outbreaks tied to visitors from abroad.

The country on Tuesday reported its first domestic virus case since March 25, after a hotel worker tested positive following contact with 11 quarantined visitors from India.

Bangladesh

The Bangladeshi government on Wednesday gave the greenlight to a proposal of producing Chinese and Russian COVID-19 vaccines in the country.

Bangladesh's Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the proposal to produce the vaccines -- China's Sinopharm and Russia's Sputnik V.

Shahida Akhter, a senior Cabinet Division official, said several leading Bangladeshi pharmaceutical firms in collaboration with the Chinese and Russian companies will produce the vaccines.

India

Indians struggled to register online for a mass vaccination drive set to begin next month as the country's toll from the coronavirus surged past 200,000 on Wednesday, worsened by shortages of hospital beds and medical oxygen.

The second wave of infections has seen at least 300,000 people test positive each day for the past week, overwhelming health facilities and crematoriums and fuelling an increasingly urgent response from allies overseas sending equipment.

The last 24 hours brought 360,960 new cases for the world's largest single-day total, taking India's tally of infections to nearly 18 million. It was also the deadliest day so far, with 3,293 fatalities carrying the toll to 201,187.

France is sending eight large oxygen-generating plants this week while Ireland, Germany and Australia are dispatching oxygen concentrators and ventilators, an Indian foreign ministry official said, underlining the crucial need for oxygen.

US President Joe Biden reaffirmed US commitment to helping India, saying he was expecting to send vaccines there while senior officials from his administration warned that the country was still at the "front end" of the crisis.

India's first "Oxygen Express" train pulled into New Delhi, laden with about 70 tonnes of oxygen from an eastern state, but the crisis has not abated in the city of 20 million people at the epicentre of the world's deadliest wave of infections.

Bangladesh

The Bangladeshi government has approved the import and use of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19.

Major General Mahbubur Rahman, director general of the country's Drug Administration, made the announcement on Tuesday.

The decision came days after Dhaka suspended the first dosing of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on a supply crunch.

"We've given permission for the emergency use of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine," Rahman told journalists.

Amid uncertainty over timely arrival of the next COVID-19 vaccine shipment from India, the Bangladeshi government halted administering first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine across the country from Monday.

Nearly 6 million people have so far received the first dose of the vaccine in Bangladesh.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Jan 28 virtually inaugurated the country's COVID-19 vaccination drive.

Japan

The Japanese government is planning to use Moderna’s vaccine to inoculate the public at planned large-scale vaccination sites in Tokyo and Osaka, assuming the vaccine gets regulatory approval, NHK reported.

The site in Tokyo, which will be located in the financial district of Otemachi, is set to open on May 24, the government announced Tuesday. Separately, Kyodo reported that a Health Ministry panel will make a decision on approving the Moderna vaccine as early as May 20. Japan has so far only approved Pfizer’s dose.

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Australia

Australia will give about 2,050 athletes and support staff bound for the Tokyo Olympics early priority access to COVID-19 vaccines.

“While vulnerable Australians remain an absolute priority as the vaccine rollout continues, National Cabinet understands the pressure our high-performance athletes have been facing as the Tokyo Games draw closer,’ Sports Minister Richard Colbeck said in a statement.

Amid concerns of a slow rollout, Australia had vaccinated almost 2 million of its 26 million population as of Monday, according to government data. Japan, which is due to host the Games from July 23, is also in a race to vaccinate citizens, and has given enough doses to cover just 1.1 percent of its population.

Singapore

The Singapore government said Tuesday that five workers residing at a dormitory had likely been reinfected by Covid-19.

Dorms were at the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country last year, so when cases were discovered at the Westlite Woodlands dorm this month, more than 1,100 people living in the same block as the infected workers were quarantined. A total of 24 positive cases has been uncovered and are being investigated.

The Philippines

The Philippines will ban all travelers from India and those with history of travel to the country in the last 14 days. The ban will be in effect from April 29 to May 14, President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, said in a statement.

Australia is also banning all flights from India until at least May 15. Malaysia 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.

Indoneisa

The COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose by 5,241 within one day to 1,657,035, with the death toll adding by 177 to 45,116, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

According to the ministry, 4,818 more people were discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 1,511,417.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka on Tuesday recorded nearly 1,100 new COVID-19 cases in a single day for the first time since the pandemic began.

The country this week tightened curbs, closed schools and stepped up isolating areas as it seeks to avoid a full lockdown that would jeopardize economic recovery and the reopening of its borders to tourists. The government will restart its vaccination program Wednesday by giving front-line workers in health-sector and the military their second AstraZeneca shot, even as export curbs from neighboring India have left the country with inadequate supplies to cover all those requiring their second dose.

Turkey

Turkey on Tuesday reported 43,301 new COVID-19 cases, including 2,703 symptomatic patients, as the total number of positive cases in the country reached 4,710,582, according to its health ministry.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 346 to 39,057, while the total recoveries climbed to 4,167,263 after 45,592 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours.

The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients stands at 2.4 percent and the number of seriously ill patients is 3,549 in the country, said the ministry.

A total of 282,192 tests were conducted over the past day, with the overall number of tests in Turkey reaching 46,435,343.

Israel

Israel's Ministry of Health reported 111 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, raising the total number of cases in the country to 838,211.

The death toll from the virus increased by six to 6,359, while the number of patients in serious condition decreased from 145 to 138, out of 206 hospitalized patients.

This is the lowest number of patients in serious condition in Israel since July 11, 2020, when it stood at 136.

The total recoveries in Israel rose to 830,193 after 108 newly recovered cases were added, while the number of active cases decreased to 1,659, lowest in over a year.

Lebanon

Lebanon still faces multiple challenges in its fight against COVID-19, health experts said.

Firas Abiad, director of Rafic Hariri University Hospital, told Xinhua that one of the most important challenges facing Lebanon is the inaccuracy in the number of infections in the country as people tend to avoid doing PCR tests if they do not show symptoms of the virus.

Abiad also noted that Lebanon does not have the capacity to conduct genetic sequencing which can help monitor mutations in COVID-19 and improve the diagnostic, testing and transmission tracking.

Lebanon registered on Tuesday 1,182 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 522,763, the Health Ministry said.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the virus went up by 26 to 7,197.

Lebanon's Health Ministry noted that 5.9 percent of the total population have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccines, and 3.2 percent both shots.

Nepal

Nepal on Tuesday reported 4,524 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the third highest single day spike so far.

Of the total cases, 4,364 were confirmed through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests while 160 were confirmed through antigen test, according to the data released by Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population.

Basudev Pandey, former director at Epidemiology and Disease Control Division under the Department of Health Services, an agency under Nepal's health ministry, told Xinhua on Tuesday that he believed the reported cases were still underestimated because of the lack of adequate contract tracing of people coming in contact with infected people.

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Oman

The Omani Health Ministry on Tuesday announced 1,128 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the sultanate to 191,398, the official Oman News Agency (ONA) reported.

Meanwhile, 1,145 people recovered during the past 24 hours, taking the overall recoveries to 170,929. Nine more deaths were reported, pushing the tally up to 1,992, according to a ministry statement quoted by ONA.

Iran

The Iranian health ministry on Tuesday reported 20,963 new COVID-19 cases, taking the country's total infections to 2,438,193.

The pandemic has so far claimed 70,532 lives in Iran, up by 462 in the past 24 hours, according to the daily briefing of Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education.

A total of 1,907,190 people have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals across the country, while 5,287 remain in intensive care units, it said.

The ministry said 15,435,147 tests have so far been carried out across the country.