Workers hold documents as they wait for their turn to receive the first dose of Covishield vaccine against the COVID-19 in a passenger bus converted into a mobile vaccination centre at a wholesale market in Kolkata on June 3, 2021. (PHOTO / AFP)

NEW DELHI / JAKARTA / KUWAIT CITY / ULAN BATOR / YANGON / KATHMANDU / WELLINGTON / ISLAMABAD / MUSCAT / SINGAPORE / SEOUL / COLOMBO / MOSCOW / ANKARA - India's government said on Thursday it has inked a deal with domestic vaccine maker Biological-E for 300 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for 15 billion rupees (US$205.62 million), the first such order for unapproved shots.

The vaccine, which is currently undergoing phase-3 clinical trials, is likely to be available in the next few months, the health ministry said in a statement.

Biological E, which also has a separate deal to produce about 600 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 shot annually, said on Tuesday it entered into a licensing agreement with Providence Therapeutics Holdings to manufacture the Canadian company's mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in India.

India's top court Wednesday asked the federal government to produce complete data on its purchase history of three types of COVID-19 vaccines.

"The data should clarify the dates of all procurement orders placed by the central (federal) government for all three vaccines, the quality of vaccines as ordered on each date, and the projected date of supply," the Supreme Court in its order said.

The three vaccines are Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin (both with two-dose regimen), and Russia-made Sputnik V (administered in single dose).

India is currently administrating two made-in-India vaccines - Covishield and Covaxin. Though consignments of Russian-made Sputnik V vaccines have also arrived in India, they are yet to be rolled out.

The apex court also sought to know from the government the percentage of the country's population that has been vaccinated with a single dose and with double doses in the first three phases of the nationwide vaccination drive.

The top court directed the government to outline how it plans to vaccinate the remaining population.

Meanwhile, the court described the government's policy of giving free vaccination to the 45-plus age group and having a paid system for those below as "prima facie arbitrary and irrational."

India announced on Thursday 134,154 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, while deaths from the coronavirus rose by 2,887.

The country's total COVID-19 caseload now stands at 28.4 million, while total fatalities are at 337,989, according to data from the health ministry.

Singapore

Singapore says it has preliminarily confirmed 35 new local cases of Covid-19 infection, the highest since mid-May. Twenty-two of them were ones the government disclosed late yesterday as connected to a cluster at the MINDSville@Napiri adult disability home. Of the remaining 13 local infections, 11 were linked to prior cases and two were not linked.

Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 31 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, including 24 locally transmitted and seven imported, bringing the total tally to 62,100.

Among the local cases, 19 were linked to previous cases.

Indonesia 

Indonesia has cancelled the haj pilgrimage for people in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation for a second year in a row due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, the religious affairs minister said on Thursday.

For many Indonesians, the religious pilgrimage is a once-in-a-lifetime event, with the average wait time 20 years due to a quota system, according to the country's cabinet secretariat.

"Due to the pandemic and for the safety of the pilgrims, the government has decided that this year it won't allow Indonesian pilgrims to go again," Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas said in a statement.

Yaqut said Saudi Arabia had not opened access to the haj.

"It's not just Indonesia...no countries have received quotas, because the memorandum of understanding has not been signed," he said, adding that pilgrims who had paid haj fees will be pilgrims next year.

People walk through an inner-city park in Melbourne on June 3, 2021 as the coronavirus lockdown of Australia's second-biggest city is extended by another seven days, authorities announced as they attempt to stamp out a cluster of cases in Melbourne. (WILLIAM WEST / AFP)

Australia

The Australian government has announced a new disaster payment for people affected by coronavirus lockdown.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud on Thursday said in a press conference that people aged 17 and over who lose work as a result of lockdown will receive the "temporary COVID disaster payment" made on a week-by-week basis.

In order to be eligible, people must prove that they have lost income because of a lockdown, have used all of their pandemic sick leave and that they have less than 10,000 Australian dollars (US$7,742.6) in "liquid assets."

Eligible recipients who work more than 20 hours per week will receive 500 Australian dollars (US$387.1) or 325 Australian dollars (US$251.6) if they work less.

Australia's second-most populous state Victoria reported its lowest rise in new COVID-19 cases in more than a week on Thursday, a day after a snap lockdown in state capital Melbourne was extended for another week.

Melbourne is seven days into a hard lockdown, now scheduled to run until June 10, spurred by the latest outbreak of a virus variant first detected in India, which authorities said is highly contagious and could become uncontrollable.

Though Victoria's daily cases have remained in the single digits for a week now, officials fear even minimal contact could help spread the virus variant.

Lockdown rules in regions outside Melbourne will be eased from Thursday night due to zero cases, although curbs on house gatherings will remain and masks must be worn indoors.

Melbourne's five million residents, however, will only be allowed to step outside their homes for essential work, healthcare, grocery shopping, exercise or to get COVID-19 vaccination until the end of next week.

Victoria reported three new locally acquired cases overnight from record daily tests of more than 57,500. Thursday's cases bring the total number of infections in the outbreak to 63.

The Australian state of Queensland is stepping up its fight against COVID-19 by continuing to close its borders with another state and increasing its vaccination hubs this coming weekend.

Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath announced on Thursday that Victoria was considered a COVID-19 hotspot, meaning only returning Queensland residents would be allowed back into the state and would have to undergo a fortnight of hotel quarantine.

Fewer Australians used hospitals in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, a report has revealed.

According to data published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) on Thursday, there were 11.1 million hospitalizations in Australia in 2019-20, down from 11.5 million in 2018-19, bringing an end to years of growth in hospital admissions.

Hospitalizations grew by an average of 3.3 percent annually between 2014-15 and 2018-19 before falling by 2.8 percent in 2019-20 when the pandemic hit.

ALSO READ: Singapore allows Sinovac vaccine after WHO emergency approval

Bahrain

Bahrain started giving booster shots to vulnerable citizens who have been inoculated with Sinopharm vaccine using a different vaccine made by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, Dow Jones reported, citing the country’s undersecretary of health Waleed Khalifa al Manea.

The country is fighting a sharp resurgence of COVID-19. More than 90 percent of those hospitalized in the latest wave haven’t been vaccinated.

Sinopharm’s vaccine has accounted for more than 60 percent of Bahrain’s inoculations and was providing a high degree of protection, the report said. The government started offering the boosters at the end of May, according to the report.

Kuwait 

Kuwait will pledge US$40 million to the COVAX vaccine program, as part of its efforts to push for fairer and more equitable access to the COVID-19 shots, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah said on Wednesday.

The minister made the announcement while participating in a virtual summit of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) as representative of Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

Mongolia

Mongolia reported 1,024 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 61,396, the country's health ministry said Thursday.

Meanwhile, the death toll reached 302 with two new fatalities, and the total number of recoveries rose by 535 to 51,983.

Myanmar 

The number of COVID-19 cases in Myanmar has increased to 143,823 on Wednesday after 72 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours, according to a release from the Ministry of Health and Sports.

One new death was reported on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 3,218 in the country, the release said.

People ride their bikes along a road during a lockdown imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19, in Kathmandu on May 31, 2021. (PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP)

Nepal

Nepali authorities decided on Wednesday to extend a lockdown for 10 more days which has been put in place in the Kathmandu Valley since late April, as the number of COVID-19 cases remains high in the country.

A joint meeting of chief district officers of the Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur districts in the valley "decided to extend the ongoing lockdown till June 14," Dhundi Prasad Niraula, chief district officer of Lalitpur, told Xinhua.

In response to the devastating second wave of COVID-19 that hit Nepal in early April, the Kathmandu Valley has been switched to a lockdown mode since April 29, under which economic and social activities are fully or partially banned to prevent the spread of the virus.

Under the new restrictions announced on Wednesday, grocery stores, which were asked to be shut down last time, are allowed to open till 9 am local time.

Likewise, vehicle maintenance workshops are allowed to operate from 9 pm till 9 am next day. Officials said the relaxation was made in certain sectors due to falling COVID-19 cases in the last few days in the valley.

According to Nepal's Health Ministry, 4,524 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the last 24 hours in the country, with 1,456 logged in the Kathmandu Valley, while in most days in May the national number stood at 8,000 to 9,000.

New Zealand

New Zealand reported one new case of COVID-19 in managed isolation and no new cases in the community on Thursday.

The newly imported case came from India and has remained in a managed isolation and quarantine facility in Auckland, according to the Ministry of Health.

Oman

The Omani health ministry on Wednesday announced 1,258 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total confirmed number in the sultanate to 219,529, the official Oman News Agency (ONA) reported.

Pakistan

Pakistan's COVID-19 related death toll rose to 21,022 with 92 more deaths from the pandemic recorded on Wednesday, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Thursday.

According to the NCOC data, the eastern Punjab province recorded the highest number of deaths from the coronavirus epidemic at 10,132, followed by the southern Sindh province and the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province reporting 5,073 and 4,113 deaths, respectively.

The Asian country on Wednesday also found 2,028 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, marking a 3.94 percent test positivity rate, said the NCOC, adding the total tally rose to 926,695, including 852,574 recoveries and 53,099 active cases.

South Korea

South Korea reported 681 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Wednesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 142,157.

The daily caseload was up from 677 in the previous day, staying above 600 for two days. The daily average caseload for the past week was 550.

Three more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 1,968. The total fatality rate stood at 1.38 percent.

People stand in a queue as they wait to get a dose of Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on June 1, 2021. (ISHARA S KODIKARA / AFP)

Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan authorities said on Wednesday the ongoing nationwide travel restriction had been extended to June 14 as health officials looked to stop the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Sri Lanka's Army Commander and Head of the National Operations Center for the Prevention of COVID-19, General Shavendra Silva told Xinhua that the nationwide travel restriction was extended under the instructions of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and it would not be relaxed anytime in between.

Only essential services and food suppliers are allowed to be on the roads while all others are urged to stay at home.

Syria

Syria has received a first shipment of Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, Russia's Interfax news agency reported on Thursday, citing the Syrian ambassador to Russia.

Ambassador Riad Haddad did not say how big the shipment was but said the vaccine was now being administered to the public after doctors and the country's senior leaders were among those to get the first shots.

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The Philippines

The Philippines said President Rodrigo Duterte got a commitment from Russian President Vladimir Putin for more Sputnik V deliveries on a phone call Wednesday. A statement from Duterte’s office said the Philippine leader also sought greater cooperation with Russia on trade and defense. The Southeast Asian nation has so far received 80,000 doses of Russia’s COVID-19 shot.

The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported on Thursday 7,217 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Southeast Asian country, bringing the total tally to 1,247,899.

The death toll rose to 21,357 after 199 more patients died from the coronavirus epidemic, the DOH said.

Turkey

Turkey on Wednesday confirmed 7,181 new COVID-19 cases, including 586 symptomatic patients, as the total number of cases in the country reached 5,263,697, according to its health ministry.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 112 to 47,768, while the total recoveries climbed to 5,131,453 after 7,372 more people recovered in the last 24 hours.

Vietnam

A coronavirus variant which Vietnam authorities thought was a combination of the Indian and UK strains is not a new hybrid but part of the existing Indian strain, the World Health Organization's (WHO) representative in Vietnam told Nikkei.

"There is no new hybrid variant in Vietnam at this moment based on WHO definition," Kidong Park said in an online

interview with the newspaper, adding that it was within the delta variation that originated in India.

Vietnam’s health ministry said the country will have more than 120 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines this year.

The total includes 5 million doses from Moderna Inc, 20 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine and 31 million doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, it said. 

Vietnam will also acquire 30 million AstraZeneca Plc vaccine doses and 38.9 million doses through the Covax initiative, the World Health Organization-backed effort to buy and distribute vaccines to low-and middle-income nations.