A man looks on as he receives the Sinovac vaccine against the COVID-19 coronavirus at Zainoel Abidin Hospital in Banda Aceh on March 26, 2021. (CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN / AFP)

SYDNEY / DHAKA / SEOUL - Indonesia has registered 1.5 million cases of coronavirus since the first case was confirmed in the country in March last year.

On Monday, the COVID-19 cases in the world's fourth most populous country rose by 5,008 within one day to 1,501,093, the country's Health Ministry reported.

To date, a total of 40,581 people have died of COVID-19 and 1.3 million patients have recovered from the disease, according to the ministry's data.

Indonesia has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the Southeast Asia region. The virus has spread to all the country's 34 provinces with Jakarta having the most cases, while East Java has the highest number of deaths. 

Malaysia

Malaysia reported 941 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the national total to 342,885, the Health Ministry said on Monday.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that eight of the new cases are imported, with 933 being local transmissions.

Five more deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to 1,260.

Another 1,097 patients have been released after recovery, bringing the total number of cured and discharged to 327,406, or 95.5 percent of all cases.

Vietnam

Vietnam recorded three new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday, raising its total tally to 2,594, according to its Ministry of Health.

The new cases included a foreign expert and two Vietnamese citizens who recently entered the country from abroad and were quarantined upon arrival.

A total of 2,308 COVID-19 patients have been given the all-clear so far in the Southeast Asian country, the ministry said, adding that over 44,800 people are being quarantined and monitored.

Afghanistan 

A total of 62 new COVID-19 cases have been registered in Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number in the country to 56,384, the Public Health Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The statement also said four patients had died over the period, bringing the number of COVID-19 related deaths to 2,476 since the outbreak of the virus in February last year in the country.

A total of 653 patients have recovered over the past 24 hours, bringing the number of recovered ones to 50,666 in the country.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh, struggling against a new wave of infections, Monday stepped up its COVID-19 combating measures.

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) reported 5,181 new COVID-19 infections, the highest increase in a single day since the pandemic started in the country.

Since March 8, 2020, the coronavirus has so far spread to nearly every Bangladeshi district and the official data showed the national tally for COVID-19 infections has increased to 600,895 with 8,949 deaths including 45 on Monday.

The official data showed that 28,195 samples were tested in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh.

The total number of recovered patients in the country stood at 538,018, including 2,077 new recoveries on Monday, said the DGHS.

Nepal

Nepal's Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday lauded China's contribution to the world in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic after a batch of Chinese vaccines arrived in the Himalayan country.

A chartered flight of the Nepal Airlines, the national flag carrier, brought back the vaccines donated by China on Monday, giving a major boost for Nepal to continue its vaccination campaign against the pandemic.

During the handover ceremony at Prime Minister Oli's residence in Kathmandu, Oli extended heartfelt thanks to the Chinese government on behalf of the Nepali government and in his personal capacity for donation of the COVID-19 vaccines.

He also appreciated China's anti-COVID-19 efforts as well.

India

India has reported on Monday its worst single-day increase in COVID-19 cases since October, taking the tally to more than 12 million for the first time ever.

A total of 68,020 new coronavirus cases were reported in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said. It was the highest daily rise since Oct. 11, according to a Reuters tally.

India’s overall caseload of 12.04 million - the world’s biggest outside the United States and Brazil - had been falling steadily since a peak in late September, but increased public gatherings and travel are causing a spurt at a time when a majority of Indians are yet to be vaccinated.

India has been reporting a spike in cases - above the 60,000 mark - for three consecutive days, though Monday’s rise was still below September’s peak of more than 90,000 cases a day.

The Philippines

The Philippines on Monday received the first batch of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines its government has purchased from China.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte welcomed the arrival of the CoronaVac vaccines alongside Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines, Huang Xilian, at an air force base in the capital Manila.

The Philippines’ key economic area plunged back into another lockdown for a week starting Monday as the Southeast Asian nation faces its worst coronavirus surge and a slow vaccine rollout.

Metro Manila and the adjacent provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal were placed under enhanced community quarantine or ECQ, the nation’s strictest classification of movement curbs, from March 29 to April 4. A curfew from 6pm to 5am will be imposed during the lockdown.

“Our main objective why we’re closing down again is to make our healthcare system more manageable,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said at a virtual briefing Monday. “Our emergency rooms and intensive care units are choking.”

The economic impact of the stay-home order is expected to be minimal as offices and financial markets will be shut on April 1 and for the Easter holiday, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said on Saturday, adding that “drastic threats warrant drastic response.”

The Philippine Stock Exchange kept the shortened trading hours implemented since the early days of the pandemic, while bonds, foreign currency and swap trading hours are unchanged from Dec 1 when the Bankers Association of the Philippines restored the pre-pandemic schedule.

Philippine stocks swung between gains and losses early Monday, with the benchmark index rising 1.5 percent as of 11:00 am Monday after falling as much as 1.7 percent. The impact on the currency was more muted, with the peso holding steady at 48.49 against the dollar.

Mongolia 

Mongolia reported a record daily high of 575 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, taking the national tally to 7,589, the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Monday.

"A total of 13,210 COVID-19 tests were conducted at 15 laboratories across the country yesterday, and 575 of them were positive," Enebish Temuulen, deputy director of the NCCD, said at a press conference.

Of the latest confirmed cases, one was imported from abroad, and the remaining 574 were locally transmitted, most of which were detected in Ulan Bator, the country's capital and the hardest-hit city, said Temuulen.

Fiji

Fiji received on Monday night the second batch of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine it has procured through the COVAX facility, a World Health Organization-led initiative aimed at ensuring equal access to COVID-19 vaccines by various countries.

According to a Fijian government statement, the 100,000 vaccine doses arrived at the Nadi International Airport, about 200 km west of the Fijian capital Suva, and Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama attended the handover.

According to Bainimarama, the newly arrived vaccine doses will be used to inoculate the remaining people in the priority groups including frontline workers, medical staff, quarantine and hotel workers, and members of the Disciplined Forces.

The World Health Organization (WHO) aims to vaccinate at least 20 percent of Fiji's population by the end of this year, said WHO Representative to the South Pacific Akeem Ali on Monday.

According to Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBC), Ali noted the WHO-led COVAX facility, saying there are three vaccines that have emergency use license from the WHO and they are being made available across the world, with Fiji being one of the countries that is benefitting.

COVAX has agreed with manufacturers to make sure that the vaccines become available, he said, adding that Fiji is receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Fiji, an island nation with a population of around 900,000, is targeting to get 1.2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Currently, Fiji has received the first batch of 12,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX facility. As of last Thursday, a total of 6,278 individuals in Fiji have received the first jab of the vaccine.

Cambodia

Cambodia's Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on Monday that the Southeast Asian nation has set a goal of providing one million shots of the COVID-19 vaccine to its citizens per month.

"In our plan, we aim to give at least one million doses a month because more purchased and donated vaccines will be subsequently arriving in the country," he said in a voice message.

The prime minister said doctors will be dispatched by the central authorities to assist in the vaccine rollout carried out in different areas of the country in order to speed up the inoculation drive.

The move came after a new batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines that Cambodia bought from China's pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech arrived in the kingdom on Friday.

Cambodia confirmed 40 new local COVID-19 cases and one new death on Monday, the country's Ministry of Health (MoH) said in a statement.

A health worker takes a compulsory nasal swab sample of a vendor at a beach as mandated by the civic authorities to undergo COVID-19 rapid antigen test in Mumbai on March 27, 2021. (PHOTO / AFP)

Australia

Australian authorities announced a snap three-day COVID-19 lockdown in the northern city of Brisbane from Monday afternoon, as they attempt to stamp out an outbreak of the virulent UK variant of the virus.

About 2 million people in the city, the country’s third largest and the capital of Queensland state, will be required to stay home from 5 p.m. local time except for essential work, healthcare, grocery shopping or exercise.

“I know this is a really big call and I know it is really tough,” Queensland state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters. “We have Easter coming up, we have school holidays coming up but let’s do it now and let’s do it right.”

State officials reported four new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Monday, taking the cluster of cases linked to the UK variant to seven. The first case in the new cluster was reported on Friday.

Palaszczuk pointed to the success of a snap three-day lockdown in Brisbane in early January after the discovery of a single case of the UK variant.

Japan

Japan’s vaccine minister, Taro Kono, said on Monday that the pace of inoculation in the country would accelerate in May, with 10 million doses expected to be imported every week that month.

“Starting in May, there will be no bottleneck in supply,” Kono told Reuters in an interview. Officially the minister in charge of administrative reform, Kono was tapped in January to lead Japan’s COVID-19 vaccination push.

Japan started its vaccination campaign last month, later than most major economies and dependent on imported doses of Pfizer Inc’s vaccine. Shots developed by AstraZeneca PLC and Moderna Inc are now awaiting regulatory approval in Japan.

Through Friday, just over 780,000 people in Japan, mostly healthcare workers, have received at least one vaccine dose.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh reported a daily spike of 3,908 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, the highest single-day number recorded since July last year, bringing its total tally to 595,714.

The daily spike was compared to 4,019 registered on July 2, 2020.

In the last 24 hours, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) reported 35 more deaths from the coronavirus epidemic, bringing the COVID-19 related death toll to 8,904.

The official data showed 22,136 samples were tested in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh.

The total number of recovered COVID-19 patients in the country rose to 535,941, including 2,019 new recoveries on Sunday, said the DGHS.

ALSO READ: India sees biggest spike in new virus cases since mid-October

Iran

Coronavirus cases in Iran spiked for a second day in the aftermath of a weeklong new year’s holiday. The country recorded 9,310 new infections overnight, the highest figure since Dec 11.

Iran reported 8,751 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, raising its nationwide caseload to 1,855,674. The pandemic has claimed 62,397 lives in Iran, up by 89 in the past 24 hours, while the tally of recoveries surged by 8,105 to 1,593,219.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday blamed the US sanctions for "hindering the availability of COVID-19 vaccines" for Iranians.

"We order from a country a (COVID-19) vaccine, but it says it is still afraid of U.S. sanctions," Rouhani was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Rouhani noted that his administration has allowed the private sector to import COVID-19 vaccines, using the subsidized foreign currency and under the supervision of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education.

The resurgence of COVID-19 disease in Iran is serious, the country's Ministry of Health and Medical Education announced on Sunday.

The hospitalization over the novel coronavirus infections is on the rise throughout the country, and the risk of a new wave is serious, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported, citing the health ministry.

South Korea

A panel of South Korean advisers recommended a coronavirus vaccine from Johnson & Johnson was safe and effective, the food and drug safety ministry said on Monday, moving the single-dose shot a step closer to receiving regulatory approval.

When granted a greenlight, the J&J vaccine will be the third COVID-19 vaccine authorized in South Korea, following ones from AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech, both of which require two doses.

South Korea has an agreement to get 6 million doses of the J&J vaccine and has said it will be ready for inoculation from the second quarter.

The final authorization of the vaccine will be decided after two more expert committees hold meetings.

The country has so far administered 793,966 first doses of vaccines among medical workers and high-risk groups since the beginning of its vaccination campaign in February.

South Korea reported 384 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Sunday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 102,141.

The daily caseload was down from 482 in the previous day amid fewer virus tests over the weekend, falling below 400 in six days.

The daily number of infections hovered above 100 since Nov. 8 last year owing to cluster infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province as well as imported cases.

Of the new cases, 105 were Seoul residents and 130 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.

Turkey

Turkey on Monday started to inoculate citizens aged 60 and over against COVID-19 as part of its ongoing nationwide vaccination program. 

Meanwhile, some risk groups in Turkey were also included in the list, Fahrettin Koca, the country's health minister, announced via his social media account.

Turkey on Sunday reported 29,058 new COVID-19 cases, including 1,305 symptomatic patients, as the total cases in the country reached 3,208,173.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 153 to 31,076, while the total recoveries climbed to 2,957,093 after 17,164 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours, according to the Turkish Health Ministry.

A total of 220,109 tests were conducted over the past day, with the overall number of tests in Turkey reaching 37,877,236.

Jordan

Jordan will extend partial curfew to May 15 to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country, its media minister said Sunday.

In a press briefing in capital Amman, Jordan's Minister of State for Media Affairs Sakher Dudin said the partial curfew and restrictions on movement were scheduled to end by March, but the government has made the decision to extend them until May 15 as the situation is "worrying."

Businesses will be allowed to operate from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time while public movement will be restricted between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. Total lockdown will be imposed on Fridays and wedding halls and gyms will be closed.

Highlighting the rising number of COVID-19 fatalities, infections and the positive rate, Dudin said the spread of COVID-19 has reached alarming levels in Jordan, noting that admission for COVID-19 patients is higher than the number of those discharged from hospitals.

Lebanon

Lebanon registered on Sunday 2,724 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 461,062, the Health Ministry reported.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the virus went up by 38 to 6,096 in the country, it said.

Israel

Israel's Ministry of Health reported 523 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, raising the total confirmed tally in the country to 831,906.

The death toll from the virus reached 6,183 with 18 new fatalities, while the number of patients in serious condition decreased from 479 to 468, out of 669 hospitalized patients.

The total recoveries in Israel rose to 816,115, with 1,610 newly recovered cases, while the number of active cases decreased to 9,608, the lowest since Nov. 26, 2020.

The new figure reflects a sharp decline in active cases since Feb. 5 when 84,784 active cases were registered.

Kuwait

The Kuwaiti Health Ministry reported on Sunday 1,121 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total infections in the country to 228,299.

The ministry also announced seven more deaths, taking the death toll to 1,286, while the tally of recoveries rose by 1,236 to 212,596. A total of 14,417 coronavirus patients are receiving treatment, including 251 in the intensive care units.

Abdullah Al-Sanad, the ministry's spokesman, called for citizens and residents to continue adopting all preventive measures, to avoid contact with others, and to ensure the implementation of physical distancing.

Myanmar

Myanmar reported eight more confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing its total tally to 142,385.

A statement from the health ministry said no new deaths from the coronavirus epidemic were recorded in the Asian country, with the death toll staying unchanged at 3,206.

The official data showed a total of 131,789 recovered patients have been discharged from hospitals, and over 2.53 million samples have been tested for COVID-19 so far in the country, including 998 on Sunday, compared to around 10,000 samples tested daily in early February.

Iraq

The Iraqi Ministry of Health reported on Sunday 5,271 new coronavirus cases, raising the total nationwide infections to 832,428.

The ministry also reported in a statement 35 new fatalities, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 14,212, while the total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 4,820 to 745,935.

A total of 7,908,378 tests have been carried out across the country since the outbreak of the disease in February 2020, with 37,273 done during the day, according to the statement.

Meanwhile, a member of the parliamentary committee, Salman Hassan, said in a press release that "the recent increase in the daily infection rate is a serious matter and a source of concern for the Ministry of Health and the country's authorities."

Hassan stressed that adherence to health-protective measures and vaccination is the best way to prevent the spread of the pandemic in Iraq.

READ MORE: New double mutant COVID-19 variant found in India

Pakistan

Pakistan will allow some businesses and factories to operate in the third wave of the pandemic, Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has tested positive for the virus, said in a televised speech.

Among steps in the latest lockdown, Pakistan has closed schools and shut shops and restaurants on the weekend in cities with positivity rate higher than 8 percent. It is also banning large gatherings and weddings receptions.

Khan said he got the virus during the campaigning for indirect elections for Senate. He has made a steady clinical recovery and may resume his routine work over the next few days, the nation’s health chief Faisal Sultan said in a Twitter post.

Singapore

Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 12 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing its total tally to 60,300.

All of the new infections were imported cases.

On Sunday, nine more COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities, bringing the total number of recoveries from the coronavirus epidemic to 60,122 in the country, according to the ministry.

New Zealand

New Zealand reported 11 new border-related COVID-19 cases in managed isolation and no new community cases on Monday, said the Ministry of Health in a statement.

Of these new cases, one arrived from Italy via Singapore, and 10 arrived in New Zealand on the same flight from India via the United Arab Emirates, which arrived on March 27. Additional testing including Whole Genome Sequencing will be conducted to indicate whether any of the cases are related.

Thailand 

Thailand confirmed 39 cases of COVID-19 infection, mostly domestic, on Monday, according to the Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).

Of the new cases, 28 were domestic infections while 11 others referred to imported cases, CCSA spokeswoman Apisamai Srirangsan said.

Of those domestic cases, 15 were confirmed in Bangkok and 10 in Samut Sakhon, among other provinces, she said.

Thailand has so far confirmed a total of 28,773 cases of infection, 25,715 of which were reported as domestic while 3,058 others referred to those who had returned from abroad and tested positive in this country.