Australia's Victoria state will start loosening its Covid-19 lockdown curbs late Tuesday as planned, Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said, after the state reported fewer new infections.
Victoria reported 10 new local infections, down from 11 a day earlier, with all cases tied to the latest outbreak and in quarantine throughout their infectious period, health officials said.
In Japan, capital city Tokyo confirmed 2,848 new infections Tuesday, its highest daily tally, topping the previous record of 2,520 infections reported Jan. 7, authorities said.
Tuesday's figure was the eighth consecutive day of more than 1,000 cases reported, Japan Times said.
In the Philippines, officials should immediately implement "circuit-breaking lockdowns" to stem the imminent spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant, OCTA Research Group said Tuesday.
"We should go early and go hard to have anticipatory, preventive, circuit-breaking lockdowns," fellow OCTA researcher Ranjit Rye said in quotes by Inquirer News.
Over in India, the country will miss a target to administer more than 500 million vaccine doses by the end of July, as Bharat Biotech - maker of its only approved homegrown shot - struggles to increase output, government data showed.
India has carried out one of the world's biggest immunization campaigns and has so far distributed some 430 million doses - more than any nation except China, Reuters said.
In Malaysia, the country reported a record 207 fatalities Monday, with the number of critically ill patients also registering a high.
Malaysia's tally of cases is now 1.03 million, of which 165,841 are active or infectious, Channel News Asia said.
In Singapore, tighter restrictions for fully immunized residents could be eased before Aug. 18, with isolation-free travel being proposed in the months ahead, finance minister Lawrence Wong said.
Singapore expects 80% of its 5.7 million population to be fully inoculated by September, South China Morning Post said.
In Thailand, the country's worsening outbreak is placing intense pressure on hospitals, forcing physicians to treat patients in parking lots and turn away people who are severely ill, The Guardian said.
In around four months, Thailand's total deaths have increased from fewer than 100 to 4,146.
In Indonesia, thousands of foreigners left the country in the first three weeks this month in the face of the ongoing multitiered public activity restrictions aimed at containing the Delta variant.
The Soekarno-Hatta International Airport authority recorded some 10,612 foreign visitors leaving Indonesia through the airport between July 1 and July 23, according to the Jakarta Post.
Over in Hong Kong, the attitude of the locals in the city toward the coronavirus vaccine has slightly improved between April and May this year, with the acceptance rate rising by 3% from 40% to 43%, Cigna's latest Vaccine Perception Study shows.
Overall, the survey shows that more people in Hong Kong have been immunized or are willing to get immunized, Human Resources Online said.
In China, the government reported 71 new cases Monday, health officials said Tuesday, as an outbreak of the Delta variant threatens the eastern city of Nanjing.
Local cases accounted for 30 of the new cases, down from 40 a day earlier, the National Health Commission said.
In Vietnam, the case tally of the country's ongoing outbreak climbed 2,761 Tuesday morning with new patients recorded in 20 localities.
Vietnam has immunized more than 4.74 million against the virus but only 423,070 have been given two shots, VNExpress reported.
Worldwide, there are currently 194 million Covid-19 cases, with 4.16 million deaths.
