People wearing face masks pass by a poster about precautions against the coronavirus at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea, July 13, 2021. (AHN YOUNG-JOON / AP)

ANKARA / DHAKA / NEW DELHI / JAKARTA / MANILA / COLOMBO / KUALA LUMPUR / KABUL – South Korea's rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations to people aged 55-59 has stuttered to a weeklong halt after a spike in new cases sparked a rush for shots, booking up available supplies and crashing the official reservation website.

The halt in vaccination appointments for people in the upper 50s age bracket came late on Monday, the first day that inoculation bookings were opened to under-60s. 

Daily infections had risen to 1,440 by 9 pm on Tuesday, the country's highest daily tally of the pandemic and an eighth straight day of more than 1,000 cases, Yonhap news agency reported.

"Due to strong demand, 1.85 million Moderna doses were fully booked and reservations for those who couldn't sign up will resume on July 19," the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said in a statement. A total of around 3.52 million people in the 55-59 age group were eligible to sign up, leaving 1.67 million still to reserve shots.

Just about 11.6 percent of the country's 52 million population has completed vaccination, including receiving both shots for products requiring two doses, while 30.4 percent have received one dose, according to government data.

Health authorities sought to reassure the public on Tuesday that enough vaccine supply will be secured in August for the 55-59 age group who couldn't book on Monday and for other people in their 50s, a KDCA official said at a briefing.

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Malaysia

Malaysia on Tuesday announced new measures to support its ailing public health system as the country saw another record daily rise in COVID-19 cases, fueled by the highly infectious Delta variant.

The Southeast Asian country reported 11,079 new infections on Tuesday, the third daily record seen in the past week, and 125 additional deaths.

The outbreak has been largely driven by the Delta variant - now the dominant coronavirus strain in the country, Health Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said at a news conference with other top health officials.

“We projected that the number of cases from July 3 will increase. It has been a week, and we anticipate that it will go up for a week or two, before we see cases stabilize,” he said at a briefing. “One of the reasons is because of the Delta variant. It is airborne and so the transmission is faster.”

About 70 percent of new cases were reported in the capital Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding states of Selangor and Negeri Sembilan, where hospitals have struggled with shortages of beds, ventilators and oxygen tanks.

The government has approved an additional 100 million ringgit (US$23.86 million) for outsourcing activities where non-COVID-19 patients are moved from stretched public hospitals to private facilities, the officials said.

Authorities will also increase the number of dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, and purchase more oxygen tanks and beds, among other measures.

Citing low testing rates, officials also warned that Malaysia's infection figures could be much higher than reported and vowed to increase mass screening in the worst-hit areas.

Earlier on Tuesday, a COVID-19 vaccination center was ordered to close for sanitization after more than 200 volunteers and workers there tested positive over the weekend.

Bangladesh

The Bangladeshi government has announced five packages of 32 billion taka (some US$372 million) to help low-income groups affected by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made the announcement of the support packages in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the statement from the Prime Minister's Office, low-income people including day-laborers, transport workers, small traders and water transport workers who have been hit hard by the ongoing restrictions imposed due to the rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths will be supported through the packages.

The announcement came on a day the country reported 12,198 new COVID-19 cases and 203 moredeaths, taking the tally to 1,047,155 and the toll to 16,842, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said.

The Bangladeshi government has decided to ease the ongoing lockdown for a week from July 15 to help Muslims prepare for the festival of animal sacrifice -- Eid-ul-Azha.

As part of easing lockdown measures, the government is very likely to allow public transport services resume on the condition of complying with health rules, a cabinet division official said. Shops and shopping malls will also to be allowed to resume with strict health guidelines in place, the official added.

Also, authorities in Bangladesh have approved at least 21 cattle markets to help Dhaka dwellers buy sacrificial animals in designated spots in the capital city ahead of the festival amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kuwait

The Kuwaiti Cabinet decided on Monday to close down all activities for children, including summer clubs, from July 25 until further notice, as a precautionary measure to combat the spread of coronavirus.

After a briefing by the health minister, the Cabinet also ordered the ministry of defence and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) to put their hospitals at the service of the country's healthcare system, according to a Cabinet statement.

Kuwait on Monday reported 1,770 COVID-19 infections, and 19 deaths, bringing the total of infections to 37,7364 and deaths to 2,136.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ordered on Monday medical aid to Tunisia, including 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Through the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Action (KSRelief), the assistance aims to help Tunisia control the rapid spread of the pandemic.

The donations include 190 artificial respirators, 319 oxygen concentrators, 150 medical beds, 50 vital signs monitoring devices with a trolley, 4 million medical masks, 500,000 medical gloves, 180 pulse oximeters, 25 intravenous drug pumps, nine defibrillators, 15 video laryngoscopes, and five electrocardiographs, according to General Supervisor of KSRelief Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabiah.

Japan

Japan’s health ministry plans to approve Regeneron’s casirivimab-imdevimab antibody cocktail for the treatment of COVID-19 as soon as next week, the Mainichi newspaper reported, without attribution. The ministry will hold a panel meeting to discuss the treatment on July 19.

Japan will provide 1 million more vaccine doses to Vietnam, with delivery expected on July 16, bringing its total donations to the Southeast Asian country to 3 million, according to a Vietnam health ministry publication.

Australia

Australian authorities reported a slight slowdown in new COVID-19 cases in Sydney on Tuesday, but may still extend a lockdown in the country's largest city to douse an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant.

New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned the harbour city's more than 5 million residents not to become complacent as she reported 89 new locally transmitted cases, down from Monday's record high for the year of 112 infections.

“There’s a very strong commitment for officials, both governments in Australia and here in Singapore, to progress the systems -- the operational capabilities, the requirements -- that will be necessary to ensure safe travel,” Australia’s High Commissioner to Singapore Will Hodgman said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

A quarantine-free travel bubble is now more likely to occur by the end of the year due to an outbreak in Sydney, Hodgman said.

Israel

Israel has so far vaccinated 172,000 teenagers aged between 12 and 15, or 30.3 percent of the age group, against COVID-19, the Ministry of Health said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, 88 percent of people aged 50 and over, or about 2.16 million, have been vaccinated.

To date, 5.73 million people in Israel have received the Pfizer vaccine, accounting for 61.4 percent of the total population, according to the ministry.

Israel maintains that two shots of the Pfizer vaccine are sufficient for the majority of its population, and is only planning to give a third round to patients with weakened immune systems, according to a senior adviser to the ministry.

On Monday, Israel said it would begin offering a third vaccine dose to patients with weakened immune systems. This came after Pfizer cited early data showing a third shot can sharply increase immune response. 

At this point in Israel, there is no evidence to prove it is “appropriate” to administer a third shot to the entire population, Ran Balicer, chairman of the national expert advisory team on COVID-19 response, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday. There hasn’t been “clear evidence on waning immunity,” he said.

For now, Israelis who have undergone heart, lung, kidney or liver transplants and cancer patients receiving chemotherapy are among those eligible for a third dose.

Turkey

Turkey on Monday confirmed 5,404 new COVID-19 cases, raising its total tally to 5,486,959, according to the health ministry.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 49 to 50,278, while 5,506 more recovered in the last 24 hours.

A total of 227,273 tests were conducted over the past day, the ministry said.

Turkey started mass COVID-19 vaccination on Jan. 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine.

READ MORE: Indonesia loses upper-middle income status amid pandemic

Myanmar

Myanmar reported 5,014 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the tally in the country to 197,227, according to a release from the Ministry of Health and Sports.

The death toll has reached 3,927 after 89 more deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, the release said.

According to the ministry's figures, a total of 148,060 patients have been discharged from the hospitals and over 2.88 million samples have been tested for COVID-19 so far.

New Zealand

New Zealand on Tuesday reported 18 new cases of COVID-19 at the border, including five in recent returnees and 13 from the Viking Bay vessel.

The Ministry of Health reported confirmation of an additional 13 positive tests to COVID-19 for crew from the quarantined fishing vessel Viking Bay.

Two crew members had previously been reported as confirmed with the virus. All 15 affected crew have now been transferred to an onshore quarantine facility in Wellington, said a ministry statement.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson said New Zealand’s border curbs “will be with us for some time” as the pandemic continues to evolve, but there are opportunities to refine the approach as vaccination rates increase.

The Philippines

The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported on Tuesday 3,604 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,481,660.

The death toll climbed to 26,092 after 77 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said.

Tuesday's caseload is the lowest since May 23. The DOH said seven testing laboratories were not able to submit data.

A resident makes offerings to deceased relatives by burning incense papers outside a temporary swab center set up at the void deck area on the ground floor of a public housing block, after a few positive COVID-19 cases were detected in the building, in Singapore on May 21, 2021. (PHOTO / AFP)

Singapore

Singapore’s daily coronavirus infection tally hit the highest in nearly a month as authorities started investigating new cases from karaoke lounges and clubs.

The uptick in cases may fuel concerns of a delay in rolling back restrictions although the government has said it is drawing up a road map that treats COVID-19 as endemic, and manageable as part of daily living like influenza.

Officials detected 19 new cases locally, with four of the infections currently unlinked, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday. It’s the highest daily case count since June 17, when 20 cases were found.

Health Ministry officers are now investigating cases among social hostesses, who are mostly Vietnamese and frequent karaoke lounges and clubs, the government said. Those establishments were closed months ago as part of Singapore’s social distancing rules, but several have since obtained licenses to operate as food and beverage outlets and reopened under those terms.

India

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday cautioned against callousness regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, a day after an annual mass religious pilgrimage is officially allowed.

Modi warned against overcrowding at tourist sites and called for faster vaccinations against the coronavirus even as official figures indicated a slower spread of new infections.

"I will say very emphatically that it is not OK to have huge crowds in hill stations, markets, without wearing masks," Modi said in comments posted on Twitter while acknowledging the tourism industry has been badly hit by lockdowns.

He also said that in order to combat the possible third wave of COVID-19, "we need to continue to accelerate the vaccination process."

Modi’s comments came as the country reported 32,906 new cases, taking the cumulative tally to 30,907,282, according to the federal health ministry's latest data.

The country also reported 2,020 additional COVID-19 deaths but that tally included a backlog of hundreds of previously unreported fatalities in the central state Madhya Pradesh, according to the data. 

In another development, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Serum Institute of India (SII) unveiled plans on Tuesday to start producing Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in India from September to help meet New Delhi's own needs in the first instance.

RDIF, Russia's sovereign wealth fund, which promotes the vaccine globally, said the plan was to produce over 300 million doses of the vaccine per year in India, the leading production hub for Sputnik V.

Mongolia 

Mongolia reported 1,246 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 140,530, the country's health ministry said on Tuesday.

One of the latest confirmed cases was imported from abroad, and the remaining ones were local infections, said the ministry.

Meanwhile, 10 more fatalities were recorded in the past day, raising the death toll to 726, it said.

Indonesia

Indonesia reported on Tuesday a record increase of coronavirus infections, as authorities unveiled plans to order liquid oxygen and tens of thousands of concentrators from abroad to treat patients suffering from the respiratory disease.

The country's COVID-19 task force reported 47,899 new infections on Tuesday, bringing the total of cases to more than 2.6 million.

It also reported 864 new COVID-19 deaths, taking the total number of fatalities to over 68,000.

With hospitals overflowing in parts of densely populated Java island, demand for medical oxygen had outstripped production capacity of just over 1,700 tonnes a day, said Health Minister Budi Gunadai Sadikin.

He said nine provinces had reported hospital bed occupancy above 80 percent, including Jakarta and West Java. 

The country needs an additional 20,000 nurses and 3,000 doctors to deal with the surging COVID-19 cases in the seven worst-hit provinces, Budi said.

Senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan said President Joko Widodo had ordered ministers to take action over the oxygen situation.

The government is planning to launch a self-paid vaccination program amid the second COVID-19 wave in the country.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's health authorities administered the highest number of vaccines in a single day on Monday with 232,526 people jabbed, the health ministry was quoted by local media as saying Tuesday.

According to official figures from the Epidemiology Unit, 173,988 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine were given as the first dose on Monday, while 40,276 doses were administered as the second dose.

The ministry said that to date, Sri Lanka has administered over 4 million first doses.

Sri Lanka's health authorities have received another 2 million doses of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines, local media reported recently.

The vaccines were brought in from Beijing on Sunday onboard Sri Lanka's national carrier, SriLankan Airlines, according to the Colombo Page newspaper.

It was the single largest consignment of vaccines brought to Sri Lanka so far, SriLankan Airlines said in a statement.

Vietnam

Vietnam will offer the coronavirus vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech as a second dose option for people first inoculated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, the government said on Tuesday.

Vietnam's mass inoculation campaign is in its early stages, with less than 300,000 people fully vaccinated so far. It has so far used AstraZeneca's viral vector vaccine and last week took delivery of 97,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA shot.

"Pfizer vaccines will be prioritized for people who were given first shot of AstraZeneca 8-12 weeks before," the government said in a statement.

ALSO READ: Thailand to mix COVID-19 shots amid rising infections

Meanwhile, Vietnam said on Tuesday it would soon receive 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine donated by Australia, and an additional batch of one million AstraZeneca doses from Japan this week.

Vietnam on Tuesday reported 2,301 new infections, including 1,797 in the southern Ho Chi Minh City, bringing the total tally to 34,500, according to the Ministry of Health.

Seven more deaths were also posted, taking the toll to 130.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan's Public Health Ministry have registered 754 new COVID-19 positive cases over the past 24 hours, taking the cumulative tally to 136,643 in the country, according to a statement issued by the ministry on Tuesday.

According to the statement, 72 patients have died over the period, bringing the number of COVID-19-related deaths to 5,961.

Thailand

Thailand on Tuesday reported 8,685 new COVID-19 cases and 56 deaths, taking the tally to 353,712 infections and 2,847 deaths.

The government has approved a one-month relief aid for people affected by travel restrictions and curfew under the sustained COVID-19 situation.

A total of 30 billion baht (about US$920.24 million) will be granted to employees and business owners in Bangkok, its five neighboring provinces, and four southern provinces, according to government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri.