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Melbourne (AFP)
Australia’s second-largest city was preparing to enter a new lockdown on Thursday, as countries around the world struggle to reverse outbreaks of Covid-19 cases propelled by the highly infectious Delta variant.
The coronavirus continues to wreak havoc from Asia to Africa and the fight against the disease is hampered by new strains such as Delta, which was first seen in India.
The virus has reappeared in places long believed to have dodged the worst of the pandemic, Australia – praised for its successful ‘Covid zero’ strategy – facing a resurgence that has reached nearly 1,000 cases in nationwide in a month.
About 12 million Australians will be subject to stay-at-home orders by Thursday evening, as the country’s second-largest city, Melbourne, enters a “hard and fast” lockdown, joining Sydney.
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State Prime Minister Dan Andrews said he made the decision to bring the city – and surrounding areas of Victoria – back to its fifth lockdown ‘with a heavy heart’, but it was an ‘absolute necessity’ .
“Nothing about this virus is fair,” he said.
In Tokyo – just over a week before the opening ceremony of the virus-postponed Olympics – local authorities recorded 1,308 new cases, the highest number since January.
The virus poses a unique challenge to the organizers of the Games, who have been forced to ban spectators from almost all events and impose strict rules on invited athletes.
Further dampening the Olympic spirit, organizers confirmed Thursday that an athlete in Japan and five Olympic workers, mostly contractors, had tested positive for Covid-19.
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Countries where health infrastructure – and vaccine deployment capacities – remain limited are under particular pressure, with Rwanda set to enter a new lockdown on Saturday as cases soar.
The East African nation had previously avoided the worst of the pandemic by enforcing some of the continent’s toughest containment measures.
But hospitals have been overwhelmed as the country battles more virulent variants, including Delta, in recent weeks with a severe shortage of beds and medicine.
– The epicenter of Asia –
In Asia, Indonesia on Thursday recorded a record 56,757 daily infections, as the Delta variant spreads through the world’s fourth most populous country, which overtakes India as the Covid-19 epicenter of the region.
The China-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank said it was loaning the Southeast Asian nation $ 500 million to bolster its response as Indonesia’s deadliest wave to this day brings dozens of hospitals to the brink of collapse.
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Vaccine doses are pouring in by the millions into the hard-hit country, including Japan and the United States, while Jakarta on Thursday approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use. Indonesia said it is on track to receive around 50 million doses of the jointly manufactured jab this year.
Myanmar also faces chronic shortages of medical supplies, where residents of the coup-hit country’s largest city have defied a military curfew in a desperate search for oxygen to keep loved ones with the breathing of Covid.
Millions of people in Yangon and Mandalay Second City have been ordered to stay in their homes, but the death toll continues to rise and teams of volunteers are stepping in to remove the bodies of the victims from their neighborhoods.
Neighboring Thailand, where three other islands opened up to vaccinated foreign tourists on Thursday, paints a more optimistic picture despite the increase in the number of cases, as part of the kingdom’s efforts to revive its battered tourism industry.
The country launched a “sandbox” program on July 1, allowing vaccinated travelers to visit the island of Phuket. Tourists do not have to quarantine themselves in a hotel but cannot leave the island for two weeks.
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© 2021 AFP
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