Sydney, Australia's largest city, tallied its deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic Monday as military personnel set up roadblocks to restrict the movement of people, while Melbourne enforced a nightly curfew extended its lockdown for two weeks more.
Sydney, currently in its eighth week of lockdown, is the epicenter of the country's third virus wave that threatens to push its $1.5 trillion economy into its second recession in as many years.
In China, the country has seen fewer daily local cases of the virus compared to imported ones in the last four days, a sign the government's measures to contain the spread of the virus through restrictive control protocols appear to be working.
The National Health Commission on Monday tallied 50 new infections, including 13 found locally and 38 imported.
In the Philippines, health officials announced they had detected the first case of the Lambda variant in the country on Sunday.
In a statement, the Department of Health said the case was a 35-year-old asymptomatic female who recovered following a 10-day quarantine.
In Thailand, the country's main economic planning team trimmed the current year's growth forecast as the nation's worst outbreak resulted in recording fatalities, depleting local demand, and delayed tourist arrivals.
Thailand's GDP is seen to grow 0.6%-1.2% this year, down from the 1.4%-2.5% predicted in May, officials said.
Over in Singapore, authorities issued an order to Facebook requiring that correction be made over what officials say are falsehoods being shared on the internet suggesting a three-year-old child had died from the disease.
According to health officials, there has been no case of any child that has succumbed from COVID-19 at KK Women's and Children's Hospital or any other medical facilities in Singapore as of August 15.
Over in Vietnam, the nation's daily infections registered a new record of 9,715 cases Saturday, health authorities said, as the country grapples with the worst outbreak yet.
Most of Vietnam's infections were detected in the business capital of Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring industrial provinces, officials said. Vietnam has reported a total of 265,463 COVID-19 cases and 5,436 deaths.
Meanwhile, in Japan, the number of patients with severe symptoms of the disease across the country hit 1,562 as of Saturday, rising to 42 compared to the previous day and reaching a record peak for the third consecutive day, health officials said Sunday.
In Tokyo, daily infections totaled 4,294 on Sunday, authorities said, as they continue to struggle with growing pressure on the health infrastructure in Tokyo because of the resurgence of the virus.
Worldwide, there are currently 207 million cases of the virus, with 4.36 million deaths.
