Sydneysiders queue outside a vaccination center in Sydney on June 24, 2021, as residents were largely banned from leaving the city to stop a growing outbreak of the highly contagious Delta COVID-19 variant spreading to other regions. (PHOTO / AFP)

MELBOURNE/ SEOUL - Sydney’s virus outbreak means plans for an Australian-Singapore travel bubble have been delayed until at least the end of the year, the Australian Trade Minister said Sunday.

While opening the travel corridor remains a priority, the scale of an outbreak that has forced the country’s largest city into a renewed lockdown means plans are on hold, Dan Tehan told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“It has been put back due to the third wave of the virus,” he said. “The hope might be towards the end of the year that you could look at a travel bubble with Singapore.” 

Australia reported its first coronavirus-related death of the year on Sunday and a 2021 record 77 new cases of the virus in the state of New South Wales, which is battling an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.

State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the numbers in and around the country's biggest city Sydney, already under a hard lockdown, are expected to rise.

"I'll be shocked if it's less than 100 this time tomorrow, of additional new cases," Berejiklian told a televised briefing.

On Saturday there were 50 cases, the previous 2021 record high. The recent outbreak stands at 566 cases.

Of Sunday's cases, 33 were people who had spent time in the community while they were infectious, raising the likelihood that the three-week lockdown of more than 5 million people in Sydney and surroundings will be extended.

Israel 

Israel said on Sunday it will begin offering a booster shot of Pfizer Inc's vaccine to adults with weak immune systems but it was still weighing whether a third round of shots should be given to the general public.

The rapid spread of the Delta variant has sent vaccination rates in Israel back up as new infections have risen over the past month from single digits to around 450 a day, and the country has moved to fast-track its next Pfizer shipment.

Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said that effective immediately, adults with impaired immune systems who had received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine could get a booster shot, with a decision pending on wider distribution.

Malaysia 

Malaysia may see virus cases stabilize in the next one to two weeks amid a tightened lockdown and as it ramps up vaccination, the country’s health director-general said in an interview with state news agency Bernama.

Desperation is growing in Malaysia after it recorded 9,353 new cases on Saturday, a second straight daily record, and 9,105 on Sunday. The spike in cases over the last few days was due to targeted screenings, the health director-general said.

The latest figures bring the total number of infections in the Southeast Asian nation to 836,296, Malaysia’s health director general Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a Tweet.

Thailand

Thailand reported 9,539 new COVID-19 cases and 86 deaths on Sunday. That’s the second-highest for both infections and fatalities since the pandemic began.

The nation has implemented a night curfew, a ban on gatherings of more than five people and is limiting services and operating hours for restaurants and shopping malls for two weeks. The move to tighten restrictions follows a relentless surge in infections and hospitalizations that have stretched the nation’s health care system, especially in the virus epicenter Bangkok.

South Korea

South Korea reported 1,324 new coronavirus cases as of midnight on Saturday, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Sunday, down from a record 1,378 the day before as the country battles a surge of infections.

Reported cases often dip over weekends with fewer tests conducted, and authorities have warned that cases may continue to rise.

The new surge in cases has seen far fewer serious infections than earlier waves, with many of South Korea's older and more vulnerable residents vaccinated against the virus.

Overall about 11 percent of South Korea's 52 million population has completed vaccination, including receiving both shots for vaccines requiring two doses, while 30 percent have received one dose, with the spike in cases being largely driven by younger, unvaccinated people, according to the KDCA.

Iran

About 4,300 Iranians have traveled to the country’s border with Armenia since June 22 to receive vaccines, the Tasnim news agency reported, citing Rouhollah Latifi, the spokesman for the Iran Customs Administration.

With a population of more than 80 million, Iran has so far vaccinated around 4.6 million people, with only 2.1 million having received two doses, health ministry data showed.

Turkey

Turkey on Saturday confirmed 5,530 new COVID-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 5,476,294, according to its health ministry.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 37 to 50,192, while 5,217 more people recovered in the last 24 hours.

A total of 224,184 tests were conducted over the past day, it said.

Myanmar

The number of COVID-19 cases rose to 188,752 after 4,377 new infections were reported in Myanmar in the past 24 hours, according to a release from the Ministry of Health and Sports on Saturday.

A total of 71 new deaths were reported, bringing the death toll to 3,756 so far, the release said.

As of Saturday, 144,809 patients have been discharged from hospitals.

Brunei

Brunei reported two new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the national tally to 268.

According to Brunei's Ministry of Health, the new cases are a 22-year-old man and a woman aged 28 years old, and both arrived from Jakarta, Indonesia on June 27. Both show no signs of infection.

Investigation and contact tracing have confirmed no close contacts for the two cases as they were quarantined upon arrival.

The new cases are being treated and monitored at the National Isolation Center with eight other active patients, who are all in a stable condition.

Cambodia

Cambodia received new batches of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines, namely Sinovac and Sinopharm, on Saturday as the COVID-19 case total in the Southeast Asian nation neared the 60,000 mark.

Health ministry's secretary of state Yok Sambath said the new arrivals included Sinovac vaccines purchased from biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech and Sinopharm jabs ordered from pharmaceutical company Sinopharm.

"Today is a special day because we received a large number of COVID-19 vaccines," she told reporters while receiving the jabs at the Phnom Penh International Airport.

Fiji

Fiji's Permanent Secretary for Health James Fong confirmed on Saturday that 506 new cases of COVID-19 and one COVID death had been reported in the last 24-hour period.

Fong said the new death is a 55-year-old Suva woman. A ministry response team attended to her at a medical facility and transferred her to the Colonial War Memorial Hospital after she reported having severe symptoms of COVID-19.

A total of 52 deaths related to COVID-19 have now been reported in Fiji, with 50 of them taking place during the outbreak that started in April this year.