People wait to register themselves to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Varanasi, India, Aug 28, 2021. (RAJESH KUMAR SINGH / AP)

SYDNEY / DHAKA / NEW DELHI / JERUSALEM / TEHRAN / KATHMANDU / YANGON / WELLINGTON / RIYADH / SINGAPORE / SEOUL / GUANGZHOU / ANKARA / ADEN / JAKARTA / KUALA LUMPUR / ULAN BATOR / ISLAMABAD / VIENTIANE / COLOMBO - India's rising output of COVID-19 vaccines and the inoculation of more than half its adult population with at least one dose are raising hopes the country will return as an exporter within months, ramping up from early next year.

After donating or selling 66 million doses to nearly 100 countries, India barred exports in the middle of April to focus on domestic immunization as infections exploded, upsetting the inoculation plans of many African and South Asian countries.

India's daily vaccinations surpassed 10 million doses on Friday, with national vaccine production more than doubling since April and set to rise again in the coming weeks. New production lines have been set up, a vaccine developed by Cadila Healthcare won recent approval, and commercial production of Russia's Sputnik V is starting in India.

The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's biggest vaccine maker, is now producing about 150 million doses a month of its version of the AstraZeneca shot, more than twice its April output of about 65 million, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

"No fixed timeline on exports but the company hopes to restart in a few months," said the source, who declined to be named without approval to talk on the matter.

Global vaccine sharing platform COVAX hopes India will restart foreign sales sooner than later.

Bharat Biotech, the maker of India's first domestically developed COVID-19 shot, on Sunday inaugurated a new factory with a production capacity of 10 million doses a month. It said it was "marching towards" a goal of a total annual capacity of about 1 billion doses of the drug, Covaxin. 

Infections, meanwhile, are again rising in India after an explosive outbreak in April and May. 

On Monday 42,909 new cases were reported, bringing the tally to 32,737,939. Deaths rose by 380 to 438,210.

Most of the new cases and deaths were reported from the southern state of Kerala.

The country has administered more than 633 million vaccine doses, with at least one dose to 52 percent of its 944 million adults and two doses to more than 15 percent.

ALSO READ: Singapore hits 80% vaccine threshold seen as key to easing

Australia

As Australia's COVID-19 deaths exceed 1,000, a grim toll but modest by global standards, a country that has used relentless lockdowns now faces perhaps its biggest health policy challenge of the pandemic - how to reopen.

The highly infectious Delta variant has breached the country's fortress-style controls and entrenched itself deep enough in Sydney, Australia's biggest city, and with a foothold in Melbourne, that authorities have dispensed with plans to eliminate it.

Instead, they plan to ramp up Australia's lagging vaccination effort and live with COVID-19, an approach that would help struggling businesses but which is opposed by states determined to crush the disease.

Australia reported four fatalities on Monday, taking the total death toll from COVID-19 to 1,003, according to government data. It has logged an average of two to three deaths a day recently, the data shows.

But while deaths are creeping higher, infections are surging to successive record highs above 1,200 a day. With more than half the population in lockdown, even those areas with little or no infections are affected.

The exuberance that accompanied Australia's early suppression success has since been replaced with community frustration at a delayed vaccine programme that has only recently picked up pace.

People exercise in front the city skyline in Melbourne on Aug 29, 2021, as authorites announced the extension of an ongoing coronavirus lockdown in Australia's second-biggest city. (WILLIAM WEST / AFP)

Bangladesh

Bangladesh reported 3,724 new COVID-19 cases and 94 more deaths on Monday, taking the tally to 14,97,261 and the death toll to 26,109, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said.

The total number of recovered patients in the country stood at 14,21,883, up 6,186 from the previous day, said the DGHS.

Indonesia

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo said on Monday the government would adjust COVID-19 restrictions from Aug. 31 to Sept 6 due to improvements in the infection rate in more areas.

More parts of densely populated Java island have been lowered from the most severe "Level 4" category. Details of the adjustments would be announced by cabinet ministers, said Jokowi, as the president is known.

Earlier on Monday, Indonesia's capital Jakarta reopened 600 of its schools, though a teacher federation urged caution and warned of clusters in classrooms caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said 610 of 10,000 schools deemed safe had opened at 50 percent capacity in a resumption of a trial that started in April.

Vaccinations are not mandatory for at-school learning, Anies has said, adding that 91 percent of children aged 12-18 and 85 percent of educators have been fully inoculated. Nearly 70 percent of Jakarta's 10 million population have been vaccinated.

The Indonesian health ministry said on Monday that the number of COVID-19 cases in the country rose by 5,436 within one day to 4,079,267, while the death toll adding by 568 to 132,491.

On the same day, the country received more ready-to-use doses and doses in bulk of both AstraZeneca and China's Sinovac vaccines.

Iran

The Iranian health ministry reported on Monday 33,780 new COVID-19 cases, taking the country's total infections to 4,960,744.

The death toll rose by 669 to 107,151, according to a briefing published by Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education on its official website.

A total of 4,175,405 people have recovered from the disease while 7,886 remained in intensive care units, the ministry said.

By Monday, 18,551,964 people have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine in the country while 8,389,296 have taken two doses.

Earlier in the day, Karim Hemmati, head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, said Iran needs 180 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in order to achieve the "complete vaccination" of the population and pull the country out of the "coronavirus crisis," official news agency IRNA reported.

Iran's Red Crescent is the main institution importing vaccines to the country, and is currently seeking ways to procure vaccines suitable for patients with special conditions, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and children, Hemmati said in a meeting of the organization in Tehran.

Israel

Israel's Ministry of Health on Monday reported 6,576 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the tally of infections in the country to 1,055,836.

The death toll rose by eight to 6,990 while the number of patients in serious condition increased from 726 to 731, the ministry said.

The total recoveries climbed to 969,221 after 10,010 newly recovered cases were recorded, while active cases decreased to 79,625, it added.

The number of people who have received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine surpassed 5.96 million, or 63.9 percent of its total population, while over 5.47 million have taken two doses and over 2.04 million have got three jabs.

On Sunday, Israel has announced the cancelation of the full quarantine obligation for passengers arriving from most countries. The decision will take effect on Sept. 3, and will apply to vaccinated and recovered passengers only.

An Israeli resident receives a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at the Clalit Health Services clinic in Tel Aviv, Israel, Aug 24, 2021.  (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

Israeli study on booster shots

A third COVID-19 vaccination shot appeared to significantly curb a delta-led surge in cases and prevent severe illness, according to a study in Israel, the first country to offer boosters to seniors.

Twelve days or more after a booster dose of vaccine made by Pfizer Inc and its partner BioNTech SE, the risk of a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection decreased 11.4-fold relative to people given only two jabs, researchers from Israel’s Ministry of Health and key scientific institutes found. A third dose was associated with at least a 10-fold reduction in the risk of falling seriously ill, according to the research released Friday.

The more-infectious delta variant has fueled a resurgence of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in many countries, including Israel, prompting plans to administer extra doses to those already immunized. Israeli authorities approved a Pfizer-BioNTech booster jab for vulnerable citizens on July 12 and began offering it on July 30 to all people 60 or older who had been immunized for at least five months.

“The results of such a policy are of importance for countries that seek strategies to mitigate the pandemic,” said Yinon M Bar-On from the Weizmann Institute of Science and colleagues in the paper. “Our findings give clear indications of the effectiveness of a booster dose even against the currently dominant delta variant.” 

The analysis is based on medical findings from the health ministry database extracted on Aug 24. The researchers chose 12 days as the time it took the booster to curb confirmed infections.

Over two million Israelis have received the third booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, the state's Ministry of Health said on Sunday.

So far, 2,013,080 people in Israel have received the booster shots after the third dose campaign in the country began on Aug 1.

Earlier on Sunday, the ministry lowered the eligibility age for the third dose from 30 to 12 years old. This is also under the condition that at least five months have passed since the second dose of vaccine.

Teachers, healthcare workers and pregnant women of all ages were already eligible to receive the third dose.

The number of people who have received the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Israel reached nearly 5.96 million, or 63.9 percent of its total population, while over 5.47 million have taken two doses.

A man receives the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building in Tokyo, Japan, on June 25, 2021. (RODRIGO REYES MARIN / POOL / AFP)

Japan

Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine contamination woes in Japan have widened with another million doses being suspended, after foreign substances were found in more batches and two people died following shots from affected lots.

The suspension of Moderna supplies, more than 2.6 million does in total, comes as Japan battles its worst wave of COVID-19 yet, driven by the contagious Delta variant, with new daily infections exceeding 25,000 this month for the first time amid a slow vaccine rollout.

The latest reports of vaccine contamination came from the Gunma prefecture near Tokyo and the southern prefecture of Okinawa, prompting the suspension of two more lots in addition to the 1.63 million doses already pulled last week.

A tiny black substance was found in a Moderna vaccine vial in Gunma, an official from the prefecture said, while in Okinawa, black substances were spotted in syringes and a vial, and pink material was found in a different syringe.

Japan's health ministry said some of the incidents may have been due needles being incorrectly inserted into vials, breaking off bits of the rubber stopper. Other vials from the lots can continue to be used, the ministry said.

Domestic distributor, Takeda Pharmaceutical, said that an investigation was ongoing.

The affected vaccines in Gunma are from a Moderna lot that is different from those whose use has already been suspended, the Gunma official said.

Vaccines from the same lot have been administered to 4,575 people in Gunma, but the prefecture has heard no reports of ill health, the official said.

In another development, Japan has closed a school in the eastern city of Chiba for the rest of this week, after confirming COVID-19 infections in two teachers who accompanied students to watch the Paralympic Games, a city official said on Monday.

Severe COVID-19 cases are at record levels in Japan, leaving many people to recuperate at home amid a shortage of critical care beds. Only 44 percent of its population has been fully vaccinated, lagging vaccination rates of several developed countries.

Health Minister Norihisa Tamura said lifting the state of emergency in Tokyo and other areas when the current order expires Sept 12 will be “very difficult” given that case numbers remain at high levels and the medical system is under immense strain.

Tokyo’s daily cases would ideally need to come down to about 500 a day, Tamura told NHK’s “Sunday Debate” program. On Sunday, the city reported 3,081 new cases and the seven-day average was 3,784.

Laos

Laos on Monday reported two more COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, raising the nation's death toll to 14.

Director General of the Department of Communicable Disease Control under the Lao Ministry of Health Rattanaxay Phetsouvanh said at a press conference on that the total caseload rose to 14,816 after 155 new cases were detected.

The country's 13th death involved a 33-year-old man, who was an inmate of Savannakhet prison, and began to exhibit symptoms of COVID-19 on Aug 25.

The 14th death was a 74-year-old woman living in Savannakhet province. She had suffered from hypertension and had been admitted to hospital on Aug 27.

As of Monday, a total of 9,762 COVID-19 patients have been discharged from hospitals after recovery.

Malaysia

Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob is under quarantine following a close contact with a COVID-19 patient, his office said in a statement on Monday.

His office did not say how long he would be in quarantine or whether he had been tested for the coronavirus.

Mongolia

Mongolia's COVID-19 cases increased by 2,209 to 211,080 over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said Monday.

The ministry said that a total of 4,373 samples were tested across the country in the past day, and 438 of the latest confirmed cases were detected in the capital Ulan Bator.

So far, the disease has claimed 931 lives in the country after four more patients aged 41-80 died in the past 24 hours.

More than 13,500 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized across the country, while over 16,200 asymptomatic or mild cases are being treated at their homes, the ministry said.

Over 64 percent of the population have so far been fully vaccinated against the virus in the Asian country. 

Myanmar

Myanmar's Central Committee on Prevention, Control and Treatment for COVID-19 decided on Sunday to extend the period for preventive measures against COVID-19 to Sept. 30.

The extension will be applied to all orders, announcements, directives previously issued by the respective union level government organizations and ministries in order to contain the spread of the viral disease, the announcement said.

According to the Ministry of Health, Myanmar reported 3,166 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the tally in the country to 392,300 on Sunday.

A total of 106 more deaths were reported, bringing the death toll to 15,183 as of Sunday, the ministry said.

Nepal

Over two-thirds of Nepal's population has developed antibodies against COVID-19, as shown by a nationwide survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP).

The finding suggests that the coronavirus has become widespread in Nepali society amid limited vaccination for the population, said a senior Nepali official.

According to the ministry, a seroprevalence study was conducted on 13,161 people aged over six years and chosen randomly between July 5 and Aug. 14, and the samples were tested at Nepal's National Public Health Laboratory.

"Antibodies were found in 68.6 percent of the samples tested," the ministry said in a press statement on Sunday evening, noting that the samples represented both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

"Over two-thirds of samples showing antibodies suggest that a significant number of people developed antibodies due to infection with the virus, given the context of limited vaccination in Nepal," Samir Kumar Adhikari, joint spokesman at the ministry, told Xinhua.

"As the majority of people are still unvaccinated, there is still the risk of spread of COVID-19 with the highly infectious Delta variant present in society," he said.

As of Sunday, of Nepal's 30 million population, 5.06 million had been administered one dose of COVID-19 vaccines, while 4.05 million had been fully vaccinated against the virus which has been ravaging the country for the second time since April, according to the Health Ministry.

The ministry noted that antibodies were found in samples of people in all age groups, professions, both sexes and rural and urban areas, and seen in 80 percent of people vaccinated with the first dose and 90 percent administered with both doses.

"This shows that the vaccines that we are administering have been very effective," the ministry said. The majority of the vaccinated people got the Chinese Vero Cell Vaccine developed by the Sinopharm company, according to the ministry statistics. 

New Zealand

New Zealand reported on Monday that a woman had died following her Comirnaty Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination.

An independent COVID-19 vaccine safety monitoring board considered that the woman’s death was due to myocarditis, which is known to be a rare side effect of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, the health ministry said in a statement.

The board noted there were other medical issues occurring at the same time which may have influenced the outcome following vaccination, according to the statement.

New Zealand reported 53 new community cases of Delta variant of COVID-19 in Auckland on Monday, bringing the total number of cases in the country's community outbreak to 562.

The total number of community cases in Auckland, the country's largest city, stands at 547 and in the capital Wellington is 15, according to the Ministry of Health.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said lockdown restrictions will be partially eased outside of largest city Auckland amid encouraging signs that a community outbreak of COVID-19 is being brought under control.

All areas south of Auckland will move to Alert Level 3 at midnight tomorrow, Ardern said at a news conference in Wellington. The Northland region in the far north may also move to Level 3 later this week but Auckland, the epicenter of the outbreak, will remain at Level 4 for another two weeks, she said.

Ardern said Level 3 is expected to remain in place for a week, and the government will continue to asses settings and reduce them when it can.   

Pakistan

Pakistan reported 3,800 new COVID-19 cases over the last 24 hours, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Monday.

The tally now stands at 1,156,281, the department leading the country's campaign against the pandemic said.

The toll rose by 66 to 25,670, the NCOC said.

Pakistan's southern Sindh province has been the worst hit with a total of 430,594 cases, followed by eastern Punjab province, where 391,297 people have been infected.

The country currently has 93,690 active cases, while 1,036,921 patients have recovered.

Some 39,951,787 people have been vaccinated, including 15,269,699 who have been fully inoculated, according to the latest official data.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia's students came back to school on Sunday, starting their new academic year after receiving 17 months of online education.

Only fully vaccinated students aged above 12 can return to school, while elementary and preschool students are not allowed to return for the moment.

Meanwhile, students who are not fully vaccinated or younger than 12 still started the academic year through online platforms.

Deputy Education Minister Saad Bin Saud Al Fahid visited some schools to inspect the precautionary health measures on the first day of the academic year.

"We are closely following up the schools' plans for receiving students and methods to regulate their entry and exit, along with the redistribution of tables at classrooms to ensure social distancing," he said.

Six million fully-jabbed students from more than 25,000 schools in the country resumed their in-person education on Sunday, according to the ministry.

Singapore

Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 155 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, including 147 locally transmitted ones, bringing the tally to 67,459.

A total of 441 patients were warded in hospitals, including 19 requiring oxygen supplementation, and five in critical condition in the intensive care units (ICU).

As of Sunday, 80 percent of Singapore's population have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines under the national vaccination program, and 83 percent have received at least one dose.

South Korea

South Korea reported 1,487 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Sunday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 250,051.

The daily caseload was down from 1,619 in the prior day partly due to fewer tests over the weekend, but it hovered above 1,000 for 55 straight days. The daily average tally for the past week was 1,754.

The recent resurgence was attributable to cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area.

Of the new cases, 436 were Seoul residents. The number of the newly infected people residing in Gyeonggi province and the western port city of Incheon was 402 and 63 respectively.

The virus spread also raged in the non-metropolitan region. The number of new infections in the non-capital areas was 525, or 36.8 percent of the total local transmission.

Sixty-one cases were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 13,512.

Five more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 2,284. The total fatality rate stood at 0.91 percent.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has detected nearly 60,000 COVID-19 infections in recent weeks which authorities believe may be caused by a rapid spread of what they called "Super Delta" variant, local media reported Monday.

According to health officials, Sri Lanka's active COVID-19 patient count stands at 59,796 with an average of 4,000 new infections being detected daily. So far, 8,775 deaths have been reported from the virus.

Head of the Department of Immunology and Molecular Sciences of the Sri Jayawardenapura University Neelika Malavige said the Delta variant of COVID-19 was spreading like wildfire in the country's capital Colombo and there was a great risk of it reaching other parts of the country.

Professor Malavige and Chandima Jeewandara of the university's department of allergy and immunology said that the Delta variant had gone beyond the Alpha variant and was spreading rapidly, while the variant that was newly spreading in the country could be a "Super Delta" variant.

Jeewandara said if the vaccination drive met its target of 80 percent among eligible population by the end of September, there was hope of controlling it.

Meanwhile, health authorities said the country's health system was on alert over a COVID-19 variant first detected in South Africa, according to local media.

Jeewandara said the COVID-19 variant detected in South Africa was the most mutated coronavirus so far and it was normal for new mutations to emerge in a pandemic.

Thailand

Thailand reported 15,972 new COVID-19 infections, the lowest level since July 27, according to government data released on Monday. 

The decline comes ahead of the relaxation of some business restrictions this week. There were 256 new deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the country’s fatality toll to 11,399.

The Philippines

The Philippines's Department of Health (DOH) reported 22,366 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, the highest single-day spike since the pandemic began, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 1,976,202.

The DOH also registered 222 coronavirus-related deaths, raising the country's death toll to 33,330.

The number of active cases rose to 148,594, as the government scrambles to slow the virus transmission fueled by the highly contagious Delta variant.

The DOH said two laboratories failed to submit data.

In another development, a recombinant COVID-19 fusion protein vaccine (V-01) developed and manufactured in China has been approved for phase-III clinical trials in the Philippines.

The V-01 vaccine was developed by the Institute of Biophysics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc (LivzonBio) in south China's Guangdong Province.

V-01 is a fusion recombinant protein vaccine with the receptor-binding domain (RBD) as the antigen. RBD is the most important part of the virus spike protein binding with human cellular ACE2 receptors. The binding process grants the virus access to the host's cells and leads to infection.

The Food and Drug Administration of the Philippines had granted approval for phase-III clinical trials of the V-01 vaccine to evaluate its safety and efficacy. The country has started recruiting adults aged 18 and older to take part in the trials. The first participant was enrolled on Aug. 25 and inoculated with the first dose.

Turkey

Turkey on Sunday confirmed 17,332 new COVID-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 6,346,881, according to its health ministry.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 255 to 56,213, while 11,396 more people recovered in the last 24 hours.

READ MORE: Switzerland warns of terror attacks on vaccine sites

Yemen

Yemen's government announced on Sunday receiving the first shipment of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccines.

According to a brief press statement released by the country's Ministry of Health, 151,200 doses of J&J vaccines arrived at Aden airport via the COVAX Facility.

In March, the war-ravaged Arab country received 360,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, 13,000 safety boxes and 1.3 million syringes shipped through COVAX to protect health workers, people above 60 and those with existing comorbidity.

Earlier this month, Yemen's internationally-recognized government reported a new rise of the daily COVID-19 cases in the provinces under its control following a relative decline during the past weeks.