Australia has extended a lockdown in Sydney Wednesday by another 14 days, after three weeks of restrictions failed to contain the biggest outbreak of Covid-19 this year in the country's biggest city.
Restrictions would remain in effect until July 30 after Sydney reported 97 new local transmissions, a slight increase from a day earlier, New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said, according to Reuters.
"It always hurts to say this, but we need to extend the lockdown at least a further two weeks," Berejiklian said Wednesday.
In Malaysia, health officials reported 11,618 new infections Wednesday, yet another record as the government battles to stem a sharp rise in new cases.
Noor Hisham Abdullah, Ministry of Health director-general, said the surge in new infections was because of increased testing, Channel News Asia said.
In Singapore, officials recorded 56 new local infections Wednesday, with 40 of them belonging to a growing cluster linked to karaoke bars.
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung urged those who had visited karaoke lounges and interacted with lounge hosts to get tested, the South China Morning Post said.
In Indonesia, authorities have echoed concerns over the possibility of another delay in vaccine distribution under the COVAX facility, in the face of surges of infections in developing countries exacerbated by the spread of highly contagious virus variants.
Indonesia reported a record daily high in cases with 40,427 Tuesday, data from the country's pandemic task force showed, The Jakarta Post said.
Over in China, officials are implementing further controls over its winding frontier with Myanmar as it scrambles to contain an outbreak in bordering regions.
Over the weekend, Chinese authorities tightened restrictions in parts of Yunnan bordering Myanmar, closing down public venues like theaters, karaoke bars, fitness facilities and museums.
In Vietnam, the country will offer the vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech as a second dose option for people first immunized with the AstraZeneca vaccine, officials said Tuesday.
"Pfizer vaccines will be prioritized for people who received the first shot of AstraZeneca 8-12 weeks before," health authorities said.
In Hong Kong, the city's deal to purchase BioNTech vaccines from Chinese sales agent Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group did not include conditions for Fosun or other third parties to collect personal information, Hong Kong officials said.
Fosun is BioNTech's sales agent for mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, Reuters said.
In the Philippines, the World Health Organization and the government have signed an agreement to carry out large- scale vaccine trials in the country.
Philippines' health officials said the trials are in the regulatory approval stage, where the country's vaccine expert committee, joint research ethics board, and Food and Drug Administration are evaluating documents.
Worldwide, there are currently 188 million cases of the virus, with 4.05 million deaths.
