COVID-19 surge hits Asia: Tokyo, Thailand, Malaysia set record infections - CGTN

People queue at the Central Vaccination Center as Thailand begins offering first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to at-risk groups amid COVID-19 outbreak in Bangkok, Thailand, July 26, 2021. /Reuters

People queue at the Central Vaccination Center as Thailand begins offering first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to at-risk groups amid COVID-19 outbreak in Bangkok, Thailand, July 26, 2021. /Reuters

The Olympics host city Tokyo, as well as Thailand and Malaysia, announced record COVID-19 infections on Saturday, mostly driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant of the disease.

The surge in Delta variant cases is rattling parts of Asia previously relatively successful in containing COVID-19, such as Vietnam, which will impose strict curbs on movement in several cities and provinces from Monday.

Cases also surged in Sydney, where police quarantined the central business district to prevent a protest against a strict lockdown that will last until the end of August. There were 210 new infections reported in Sydney and surrounding areas linked to the Delta variant outbreak on Saturday.

Tokyo's metropolitan government confirmed a record number of 4,058 infections on Saturday. Olympics organizers reported 21 new COVID-19 cases related to the Games, bringing the total to 241 since July 1.

03:33

A day earlier Japan extended its state of emergency for Tokyo to the end of August and expanded it to three prefectures near the capital and to the western prefecture of Osaka.

Olympics organizers said on Saturday they had revoked accreditation of a Games-related person or people for leaving the athletes' village for sightseeing.

Thailand reported 18,912 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, a record high, bringing its total cases to 597,287. The country also reported 178 new deaths, also a daily record. The Delta variant accounted for over 60 percent of the cases in the country and 80 percent of the cases in Bangkok, said to the government.

At Thammasat University Hospital near the capital Bangkok, a morgue overwhelmed by COVID-19 deaths has begun storing bodies in refrigerated containers, resorting to a measure it last took in a 2004 tsunami, a hospital director said.

Malaysia, one of the hotspots of the disease, confirmed a daily record high infection of 17,786 COVID-19 cases on Saturday.

00:44

China is also battling an outbreak of the Delta variant in the country's eastern city of Nanjing which has been traced to airport workers who cleaned a plane which had arrived from Russia. Nanjing has concluded a third round of mass COVID-19 testing and 49 have tested positive of the more than 8.7 million collected samples as of Sunday morning.

Vietnam, grappling with its worst COVID-19 outbreak, announced that from Monday it will impose strict curbs on movement in its business hub Ho Chi Minh City and another 18 cities and provinces throughout its south for another two weeks.

COVID-19 infections have increased by 80 percent over the past four weeks in most regions of the world, WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday.

"Hard-won gains are in jeopardy or being lost, and health systems in many countries are being overwhelmed," Tedros told a news conference. 

(With input from Reuters)

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMifmh0dHBzOi8vbmV3cy5jZ3RuLmNvbS9uZXdzLzIwMjEtMDgtMDEvQ09WSUQtMTktc3VyZ2UtaGl0cy1Bc2lhLVRva3lvLVRoYWlsYW5kLU1hbGF5c2lhLXBvc3QtaGlnaC1yZWNvcmQtMTJuOHhEMVluSksvaW5kZXguaHRtbNIBAA?oc=5

2021-08-01 10:05:56Z
52781767476453

Bagikan Berita Ini