E-Paper
Asia sees record Covid-19 surge, Delta variant spurs nations to reconsider curbs
In view of a record surge in Covid-19 cases, driven by the Delta variant, Asian countries are now imposing strict restrictions of movement in several major cities and provinces.
Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases are once again surging in Asia, with countries such as Thailand and Malaysia clocking a record number of infections. The city of Tokyo in Japan, where the 2020 Summer Olympics are underway, reported record Covid-19 infections over the past few days. The scenario is the same for countries that previously proved relatively successful in containing the virus, such as Vietnam. These Asian countries are now imposing strict restrictions of movement in several major cities and provinces.
Japan
Olympics organisers said on Saturday they have banned any Games-related person or people from going on sightseeing. None of them would be allowed to leave the athletes' village for touring around elsewhere in Japan, authorities said.
The organisers of the multi-sports event banished on Sunday as many as six people, including two silver medalists from Georgia, for violating measures imposed to hold the Olympics safely amid the pandemic.
Thailand
The situation is similar in Thailand, where a daily record high of 18,912 new cases of Covid-19 infection was registered on Saturday. As many as 178 people lost their lives due to the virus over the past 24 hours, also a daily record in itself.
The government of Thailand said that the Delta variant of the Covid-19 has been found in more than 60 per cent of the Covid-19 cases in the country, of which 80% are in the capital Bangkok alone.
According to the local media, a hospital near Bangkok had to begin placing bodies of the dead in makeshift containers and refrigerators, after the recent surge in Covid-19 cases overwhelmed its mortuary. The last time that the facility had to do this was after the 2004 tsunami, the hospital director was quoted as saying.
China
China is battling its worst Covid-19 outbreak in several months, reports said, as the Delta variant of the coronavirus disease keeps being locally transmitted to several parts of the country. The Delta cluster has now spread to the eastern city of Nanjiang, where airport workers were believed to have been infected after cleaning a plane that arrived from Russia.
Vietnam
Vietnam, also grappling with a surge in Covid-19 cases, 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.
India
As many as 41,831 fresh cases of coronavirus (Covid-19) disease were registered on Sunday, in the past 24 hours, taking the cumulative tally to 31,655,824. India now has 4,10,952 active cases, which constitutes 1.30 per cent of the total caseload. With this, the daily positivity rate has touched 2.34 per cent.
Covid-19 infections, driven by the Delta variant, have increased by 80% over the past four weeks in most regions of the world, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday.
First detected in India, the Delta variant of the coronavirus is as contagious as chickenpox and far more so than the common cold or flu, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said in a document this week.
