Australia's New South Wales reported one of the nation's youngest fatalities from Covid, as daily cases neared a 16-month high despite a strict lockdown of 5 million people in Sydney entering its sixth week.
The unnamed patient in his 20s had no underlying health issues and was immunized. He died at his home and deteriorated rapidly after he earlier complained of mild symptoms, health official said.
In Malaysia, the country reported 19,818 new infections Wednesday, setting a new record for daily cases since the pandemic broke out.
Fatalities from the disease also climbed to a new daily record of 256, up from the previous record of 218 deaths set two days ago.
In China, the government is witnessing a further decline in consumer spending after officials enforced lockdowns to contain the Delta outbreak that broke out in Nanjing and spread to several provinces, the South China Morning Post reported.
Some health experts fear the outbreak could also impede factory activity unless the government can immediately abort its fast transmission around the country.
In Hong Kong, officials said nations that currently fall under the 'extremely or very high risk' category will be combined into a new top tier labelled as 'high risk', SCMP said.
Under new protocols, only fully inoculated Hong Kong residents will be granted entry from high-risk nations, like the UK, Philippines and Indonesia.
Over in the Philippines, the highly virulent Lambda variant has not reached the country yet.
In a televised briefing Tuesday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the country's Genome Center is currently examining the strain and has not yet found any case of it in the Philippines, according to Rappler.
In Indonesia, the country had its deadliest day with 2,068 fatalities from the virus and death figures remain high.
As of Sunday, total infections stood at more than 3.3 million, with 97,290 deaths, although with poor testing and many people perishing at home, the real numbers are thought to be higher, the Associated Press reported.
In Thailand, there were 146 more deaths and 18,900 new infections as of Monday health authorities said Tuesday morning. The figures mark the second-highest daily increase after the 18,911 detected on July 31.
In Singapore, an interim policy to minimize potential transmission in medical facilities will see visits to all wards suspended, with some exceptions, starting August 5 to 18, official said Wednesday.
This comes after more community infections were found recently, which include personnel and patients of hospitals, health authorities said.
Worldwide, there are currently 200 million cases of the virus, with 4.25 million deaths.
