An unidentified overseas guest has been diagnosed with Covid-19 at the Tokyo Olympics athletes' village, organizers said Saturday - the first such case in the face of worries the Games could become a super-spreader event.
Tokyo 2020 chief Toshiro Muto confirmed Saturday that the visitor had tested positive for the virus. He would not reveal the person's nationality, citing privacy concerns.
The embattled Games have been marred by controversy, with Japan struggling to contain its outbreak ahead of the opening ceremony Friday.
In Sydney, Australia, health officials ordered Saturday a shutdown of building sites, banned nonessential retail and threatened fines for employers who make workers report in the office as new infections continue to rise three weeks into a citywide lockdown.
Sydney also recorded one more death from the disease, taking the total to three since the start of 2021 and the national total to 913 since the pandemic broke out.
"We're chasing our tail in terms of the infections," Reuters quoted Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant as saying in a news conference.
In the Philippines, authorities warned of a possible increase in cases as the first local transmissions of the Delta variant were recorded and more than 3 million people went into lockdown.
According to Health Undersecretary Rosario Vergeire, the government has started "preparing our health system."
More hospital beds were being prepared for patients and oxygen supplies increased in case of a "surge" in infections, she said.
In China, the government has financed the creation of a fund under the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation to combat the virus and fuel economic recovery, President Xi Jinping said during an APEC virtual meeting Friday.
"We have full confidence in humanity's victory over the pandemic through cooperation. We have full confidence in the prospects of world economic recovery," Xi said in quotes by Reuters.
In Hong Kong, experts warned that a plan to allow immunized residents and workers arriving from the highest-risk areas to enter the city could hamper efforts to control the virus.
Officials said a 50-year-old airport employee, who was first listed as a local unknown case, had been reclassified as "epidemiologically linked with imported cases," the South China Morning Post said.
Over in India, the country's tally soared to 31,025,829 Friday as 38,948 new infections were reported during the past 24 hours.
India still has 430,422 active cases. More than 30 million people have recovered and been discharged from hospitals so far.
In Indonesia, the country's daily case count surpassed Brazil's to become the worst in the world, officials said.
Indonesia hit a record 56,757 Friday as the highly transmissible Delta variant rages across the nation.
In Vietnam, the government will receive an additional 3 million doses of the Moderna vaccine from the United States through the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi said Friday.
The doses are part of the 80 million the U.S. has pledged to donate to various countries.
In Malaysia, the country now boasts one of the fastest inoculation rates in the world, doling out more than 400,000 shots per day, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
"I think we're at the stage now where we really need to vaccinate ourselves out of the situation that we have found ourselves in," Khairy Jamaluddin, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, said.
Meanwhile, in Singapore, officials are introducing new measures for dining depending on whether people have been immunized, as new infections continue to rise.
Only fully vaccinated people and those who have recovered from the virus will be allowed to dine in without taking tests when the new policies take effect July 19, officials said.
Worldwide, there are currently 190 million cases of the virus, with 4.08 million deaths.
