Covid Pandemic: Delta fuels new curbs across Asia

The highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is surging through Asia, prompting some countries to tighten curbs and others to hasten vaccination.

Sri Lankan authorities tightened restrictions yesterday as reports emerged of Covid patients dying while awaiting admission to overcrowded hospitals.

The government said state ceremonies and public gatherings were banned until September 1 because of the growing health crisis.

Public servants had previously been asked to return to work from Monday but that order has now been revoked and bosses told to decide who should report for duty on-site.

China yesterday reported its highest daily count of new Covid-19 patients in an outbreak that began in late July, fuelled by a surge in locally transmitted infections.

Officials blamed the latest clusters mainly on the highly transmissible Delta variant, though it has not led to widespread infection in some cities, while cases in some areas show initial signs they could ease.

China reported 124 new confirmed cases for Thursday, the National Health Commission (NHC) said, up from 85 a day earlier. Of the new confirmed infections, 80 were locally transmitted, up from 62 a day earlier, it added.

The latest infections were mainly in the provincial city of Yangzhou on the lower reaches of the Yangtze river, near the commercial hub of Shanghai.

To keep the virus within its borders, Yangzhou closed the passenger entrances of two railway stations yesterday. It has already suspended domestic flights, and the flow of taxis and ride-hailing vehicles with other cities.

Nanjing and Yangzhou now account for more than 70% of local confirmed cases in China since late July, though not all the local cases are linked to the two cities.

The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 4,268,017 people  worldwide since the virus first emerged in late 2019, according to an  AFP compilation of official data.  

The US is the worst-affected country with 615,320 deaths, followed by  Brazil with 560,706, India with 426,754, Mexico with 243,165 and Peru  with 196,760.

MANILA LOCKS DOWN

The Philippines is battling one of Asia's biggest outbreaks and has seen a steady rise in infections over the last two weeks which health officials have attributed to the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus.

"The national government together with local governments should act aggressively, as if there is already community transmission," health ministry spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire told a news conference, referring to the highly contagious variant.

"All of the areas in the national capital region have positive two week growth rates (in cases)," she added.

The surge has pushed the number of confirmed cases in the Philippines to nearly 1.64 million, while the 247 additional deaths recorded yesterday brought the fatality count in the country to 28,673.

Vietnam's capital Hanoi will extend restrictions until August 22, its health ministry said yesterday, after authorities warned of new clusters of infections detected in the city of more than 8 million people.

CASES SPREAD BEYOND TOKYO

Japan reached the milestone of one million coronavirus cases yesterday, domestic media reported, as infections soared in Olympic host Tokyo and other urban areas as the country struggled to contain the Delta variant.

New cases in Tokyo hit 4,515, the second highest after Thursday's record 5,042, while the neighbouring, populous prefecture of Kanagawa saw its cases soaring to more than 2,000, quadrupling in less than two weeks, reports Reuters.

Infections in Osaka, the biggest city in the country's west, also rose to a record-breaking 1,310, in a sign the pathogen is quickly spreading outside Tokyo.

The total number of cases since the pandemic began last year is now above one million, tarnishing the country's early success in containing the disease.

S'PORE TO EASE SOME CURBS

However, Singapore will from next week lift some curbs and ease restrictions on entry for foreign workers, its health minister said yesterday, as the share of people who have been fully vaccinated against the virus in the city state nears 70%.

Australia's hope of returning to "Covid zero" suffered a fresh blow yesterday, as Sydney reported another record number of new infections and authorities warned residents to brace for worse to come.

For a second straight day, New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian said Australia's most populous state hit a new peak with 291 cases detected.

In US, three employees at CNN have been fired for violating the network's coronavirus policy by coming into the office unvaccinated, according to media reports.

In an internal memo emailed to staff Thursday and obtained by several US media outlets, CNN President Jeff Zucker said that in the past week the company had become aware of three employees who came to work unvaccinated. All three were "terminated".