COVID-19 outbreak hits Asia; Tokyo, Thailand and Malaysia register record infections

July 31 (Reuters) – The host city of the Olympic Games Tokyo, along with Thailand and Malaysia, on Saturday announced record-breaking COVID-19 infections, mainly due to the highly transmissible Delta variant of the disease.

The increase in Delta variant cases is shaking parts of Asia that had been relatively successful in containing COVID-19, such as Vietnam, which will impose strict travel restrictions in several cities and provinces from Monday. Read more

Cases have also increased in Sydney, where police have cordoned off the central business district to prevent a protest against a strict lockdown that will last until the end of August.

Sydney Police have closed stations, banned taxis from dropping off passengers in the city center, and deployed 1,000 officers to set up checkpoints and disperse groups.

The New South Wales government has reported 210 new infections in Sydney and surrounding areas due to the Delta variant outbreak. Read more

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced a record 4,058 infections in the past 24 hours. Olympics organizers reported 21 new Games-related COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 241 since July 1.

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

Organizers of the Olympics said on Saturday they had revoked the accreditation of one or more Games-related persons for leaving the Athletes’ Village for sightseeing, a violation of measures imposed to organize the Olympics safely. security in the midst of the pandemic.

Organizers have not disclosed how many people were involved, whether the person (s) were athletes or when the violation took place. Read more

Malaysia, one of the disease hotspots, reported a record 17,786 coronavirus cases on Saturday.

More than 100 people gathered in central Kuala Lumpur to express their dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of the pandemic and calling on Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to step down.

Protesters carried black flags and held up signs reading “Kerajaan Gagal” (failed government) – a popular hashtag on social media for months.

Thailand also reported a daily record of 18,912 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of cases to 597,287. The country also reported 178 new deaths, also a daily record.

The government said the Delta variant accounted for over 60% of cases in the country and 80% of cases in Bangkok. The variant is not necessarily more deadly than the other variants, but much more transmissible, said Supakit Sirilak, director general of Thailand’s Department of Medical Sciences.

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

China is grappling with an outbreak of the Delta variant in the eastern city of Nanjing, which has been blamed on airport workers cleaning up a plane that arrived from Russia. Read more

Vietnam, struggling with its worst COVID-19 outbreak, announced that from Monday it will impose strict travel restrictions in its Ho Chi Minh City business center and 18 other southern cities and provinces for another two weeks.

COVID-19 infections have increased by 80% in the past four weeks in most parts of the world, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday.

“Hard-earned gains are threatened or lost, and health systems in many countries are overwhelmed,” Tedros said at a press conference. Read more

The Delta variant, first detected in India, is as contagious as chickenpox and far more contagious than a cold or the flu, the US Centers for Disease Control said in an internal document released this week. Read more

Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat, Chayut Setboonsarng and Orathai Sriring in Bangkok, A. Ananthalakshmi in Kuala Lumpur, Lidia Kelly in Sydney, Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo, Yew Lun Tian in Beijing; Written by Raju Gopalakrishnan; edited by Gerry Doyle, Jason Neely, William Maclean and Giles Elgood

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