Asia steps up virus efforts as second wave of infections strikes
HONG KONG, China — From Australia's Bondi Beach to the streets of New Delhi, authorities across Asia have ramped up efforts to stem the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus amid fears of a second wave of infections in places where outbreaks had appeared under control.
Tighter travel restrictions were imposed in several countries as the number of cases in the region soared past 95,000 — a third of the world's infections, an AFP tally shows.
Outside China — where the virus was first detected in December and infected more than 80,000 people — South Korea is the hardest-hit country in Asia with more than 8,500 cases.
While the number of infections in China has been falling for weeks, other countries are seeing the toll gather pace from spread of the highly contagious virus.
Cases rose by roughly a third in Thailand overnight to nearly 600, fueling scepticism about claims in neighbouring Myanmar and Laos of zero infections.
Three doctors treating virus patients in Indonesia died, taking the country's death toll to 48 with 514 confirmed infections.
Most cases are in Jakarta, where businesses have been ordered closed for two weeks.
After shutting its borders to foreigners and non-residents, Australia told citizens to also cancel domestic travel plans, with the number of cases topping 1,300.
Bondi Beach and several other popular swimming spots were closed after crowds of sunbathers defied a ban on large outdoor gatherings.
Pubs, casinos, cinemas and places of worship will be shuttered for up to six months starting Monday.
India curfew
Pakistan suspended international flights in a bid to prevent the virus spreading.
Officials in Sindh — the country's second-most populous province — ordered a lockdown effective midnight.
Pakistan has reported 5,650 suspected cases, 646 confirmed infections, and three deaths from the virus.
In nearby Bangladesh, however, only 27 cases have been reported, with two deaths.
Millions of people in India were in lockdown Sunday as the government tested the country's ability to fight the pandemic.
Officials said every private sector worker in New Delhi must work from home this week unless they are providing an essential service. Most public transport will also be halted.
Billionaire Anand Mahindra, whose vast Mahindra Group business empire includes cars and real estate, said his manufacturing facilities would try to repurpose to make ventilators.
Testing has expanded in the country of 1.3 billion people amid concerns that the 360 reported cases, including seven deaths, vastly understates the true scale of the crisis.
People took to their balconies in major cities after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged Indians to thank medical workers and emergency personnel by clapping or banging pots and pans for five minutes at 5:00 pm Sunday.
The World Health Organization has called for "aggressive" action in Southeast Asia, fearing that a major outbreak could cripple the region's often decrepit health care systems.
Second wave
Authorities are now dealing with a second wave of infections in places where outbreaks appeared to have been brought under control as people return from abroad.
Singapore is banning all short-term visitors to the densely populated city-state after a surge of imported cases took its total to 445 — including its first two deaths on Saturday.
In Hong Kong, where the worst had appeared to be over, the number of cases nearly doubled in the past week as more people fly back to the financial hub.
Infections in Malaysia hit 1,306 — more than half linked to an international Islamic gathering held last month, with attendees later returning to Singapore and Indonesia with the virus.
In Sri Lanka, where 82 cases were reported, guards fired on inmates in a northern prison when they tried to break out, angry over a ban on family visits to prevent the spread of the virus.
Two convicts were killed and six others wounded.
Authorities also put restrictions on the sale of two malaria treatments amid fears of a run on the drugs after US President Donald Trump said that they might be effective to prevent a COVID-19 virus infection — though scientists agree that only more trials would determine if chloroquine really works and is safe.
Papua New Guinea, which has one confirmed infection, declared a 30-day state of emergency and halted domestic flights and public transport for two weeks.
Guam, which has 15 cases, confirmed a 68-year-old woman had died of COVID-19 — the first virus-related death in the Pacific.
Follow this page for updates on a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has struck dozens of people in China.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says on Sunday that he had contracted COVID-19, testing positive at a key point in his flailing campaign for re-election.
Hipkins saYS on his official social media feed that he would need to isolate for up to five days -- less than two weeks before his country's general election.
The leader of the centre-left Labour Party said he started to experience cold symptoms on Saturday and had cancelled most of his weekend engagements. — AFP
The World Health Organization and US health authorities say Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown.
The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance "due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries", it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday.
So far, the variant has only been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States. — AFP
The World Health Organization says on Friday that the number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide rose by 80% in the last month, days after designating a new "variant of interest".
The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalisations and deaths.
In its weekly update, the UN agency said that nations reported nearly 1.5 million new cases from July 10 to August 6, an 80% increase compared to the previous 28 days. — AFP
The head of US intelligence says that there was no evidence that the COVID-19 virus was created in the Chinese government's Wuhan research lab.
In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says they had no information backing recent claims that three scientists at the lab were some of the very first infected with COVID-19 and may have created the virus themselves.
Drawing on intelligence collected by various member agencies of the US intelligence community (IC), the ODNI report says some scientists at the Wuhan lab had done genetic engineering of coronaviruses similar to COVID-19. — AFP
Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs over Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street when he was prime minister, a UK parliament committee ruled on Thursday.
The cross-party Privileges Committee said Johnson, 58, would have been suspended as an MP for 90 days for "repeated contempts (of parliament) and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process".
But he avoided any formal sanction by his peers in the House of Commons by resigning as an MP last week.
In his resignation statement last Friday, Johnson pre-empted publication of the committee's conclusions, claiming a political stitch-up, even though the body has a majority from his own party.
He was unrepentant again on Thursday, accusing the committee of being "anti-democratic... to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination".
Calling it "beneath contempt", he said it was "for the people of this to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman", the veteran opposition Labour MP who chaired the seven-person committee. — AFP
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