Asian countries are seriously facing battle to control the deadly covid-19 pandemic as the virus surge across the continent with South-Korea on Wednesday recording its highest since the first case was recorded less than two years ago.
South-Korea on Wednesday recorded a historic 7,456 cases which is reported to includes seriously ill people with serious symptoms bringing the total in the country to 583,065.
The country has already put in place strict covid-19 measure which include those from 18 years and above to show evidence of vaccination or being negative to access sporting activities; closing of bars, restaurants by not later than 21:00 and limiting the number of people in gathering to 4.
Japan, Thailand and China are also facing similar battle as Japan, according to Reuters, reported to be recording average of 201 cases per day.
While Thailand's health ministry on Wednesday announced 2,532 news cases and 31 death, China's said 77 new cases were recorded on Tuesday, having recorded 81 new cases a day earlier. Of the new infections, 57 were locally transmitted, according to a statement by the China National Health Commission, and mostly in the north-western province of Shaanxi.
The Philippines has halved the waiting time for a Covid-19 vaccine booster to three months after a second vaccination, in an attempt to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant. “We are exploring all possible options to safely mitigate the effects of more transmissible variants of Covid-19,” said the health secretary, Francisco Duque.
The Philippines has received more than 192m doses of Covid-19 vaccines and fully inoculated about 44.2 million of its 110 million population, according to the government. Covid-19 cases have fallen to an average of 378 a day in December, from a peak of 18,579 daily in September, and the country has so far detected three imported cases of the Omicron variant.
The new variant is also present in Singapor, where authorities have discovered three Covid-19 cases linked to a gym, with two of them being Omicron, according to a report citing preliminary tests.
All three people were fully vaccinated and had mild symptoms, the health ministry said, adding that it was attempting to trace contacts. Singapore has so far detected 71 confirmed Omicron cases, with 65 imported and six local.
Indonesia has recorded 4,829 cases and 11 deaths in its latest reporting period, bringing its total caseload to 4.26 million with 144,024 deaths, according to government health data. A total of 73.4% of eligible people have received at least one Covid vaccine dose and 51.8% have received two doses.
On Monday, Indonesia added people traveling from Britain, Norway and Denmark to the list of those banned from entering the country, while Hong Kong was removed, senior minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said, according to Reuters. Indonesia identified its first case of the Omicron variant last week.
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