Students queue to enter an examination hall to sit for the state Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) test amid COVID-19 in Kolkata on July 17, 2021. (DIBYANGSHU SARKAR / AFP)

BAGHDAD / BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN / JERUSALEM / ANKARA / RIYADH / SINGAPORE / SYDNEY / HANOI / ALMATY / YEREVAN / WELLINGTON / JAKARTA / TOKYO / ISLAMABAD / ULAN BATOR / VIENTIANE / PHNOM PENH / SEOUL - Tapering of the second wave of COVID-19 that wreaked havoc across India has begun to show since May when the country's daily new cases recorded a declining trend.

Despite the decline, Indian health bodies and the government have raised an alarm about the impending third wave of COVID-19.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA), which is at the forefront of fighting COVID-19, has urged federal and state governments in India not to let the guard down on the ongoing pandemic.

The country registered 30,093 new cases during the past 24 hours, the federal health ministry said on Tuesday morning.

According to the IMA, the third wave was just around the corner.

"With the global evidence available and the history of any pandemics, the third wave is inevitable and imminent," the IMA warned. "However, it is painful to note ... in many parts of the country both the government and public are complacent and engaged in mass gatherings without following COVID-19 protocols."

The IMA said that tourist bonanza, pilgrimage travel and religious fervor are all needed but can wait for a few more months.

Samiran Panda, head of epidemiology and infectious diseases at India's top health research body - Indian Council of Medical Research, said the third wave is likely to hit the country at the end of August.

He, however, said there are chances that the third wave will be a mild one and not as intense as the second wave.

Armenia

Iranians facing a shortage of COVID-19 vaccines at home are travelling to neighbouring Armenia as tourists in growing numbers to get inoculated there for free, according to data from Armenia's tourism board.

Armenia has approved three vaccines against COVID-19 - Russia's Sputnik V, China's CoronaVac and AstraZeneca's vaccine and initially offered all of them free to foreign visitors.

The Armenian Tourism Committee said more than 8,500 Iranian citizens had visited in June, up from 5,000 a month earlier.

Armenian TV reported long queues of Iranians at mobile vaccination units in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, last week with some Iranian tourists saying they had spent several nights in the street waiting for their turn to get vaccinated.

As of July 15, foreigners can only be inoculated in Armenia with the AstraZeneca vaccine and must spend 10 days in the country before becoming eligible.

Armenia had administered at least 260,813 doses of COVID vaccines by July 10, according to the Armenian authorities.

Australia

Australia’s Victoria state extended its fifth lockdown since the pandemic began and tightened border restrictions with Sydney as authorities battle to contain an outbreak of the delta variant.

Stay-at-home orders will remain in place for another seven days until midnight July 27 after Victoria recorded 13 new locally-acquired cases for a second straight day, state Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters Tuesday. The state will effectively shut its border to people from Sydney, with exceptions for essential workers such as freight drivers and for compassionate reasons, he said.

Authorities hoped to re-open earlier, but there’s a risk that unlinked cases could increase as some cases detected overnight were infectious in the community, Andrews told reporters. “There are chains of transmission that are not yet contained,” he said.

The state’s shuttering for a second week comes as authorities in south-eastern Australia battle outbreaks of the highly infectious delta variant that spread from an unvaccinated chauffeur who was infected while transporting airline crew last month. 

Authorities have issued stay-at-home orders for almost half of the nation’s population, hampering the country’s economic recovery after Australia slid into its first recession in about three decades last year.

A health worker holds a box of face masks and hand sanitizer outside a COVID-19 vaccination centre in the Homebush suburb of Sydney on July 7, 2021. (PHOTO / AFP)

New South Wales state recorded 78 new locally-transmitted coronavirus cases in the 24 hours through 8 pm Monday, as its capital city Sydney remains in lockdown for a fourth week to halt the Delta spread, state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said Tuesday. 

Meantime, South Australia state will enter a week-long state-wide lockdown later Tuesday in a bid to halt an outbreak seeded from a returned traveler.

Australia’s slow vaccine rollout has made the country particularly vulnerable to the delta variant, which has increasingly leaked out of the quarantine system for overseas arrivals.

Brunei

Brunei on Monday suspended all entry from Indonesia due to their COVID-19 situation and rising imported cases from the country.

According to Brunei's Prime Minister's Office (PMO), following the ongoing situation of COVID-19 in Indonesia, approvals on the entry for foreign nationals departing from or through Indonesia are temporarily suspended with immediate effect until further notice, which applies to entry travels of all foreign nationals departing from or through any airport in Indonesia (direct flight) or traveling from Indonesia to Brunei via transit at any other airport.

The PMO also said that in addition, the temporary suspension also applies to foreign nationals who have been granted pre-approvals to enter Brunei from Indonesia.

Brunei reported four confirmed COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the national tally to 309.

According to Brunei's Ministry of Health, all new cases were detected when they were undergoing quarantine. Three of them arrived from Singapore via sea on July 9, and investigation and contact tracing have confirmed 15 close contacts for these cases.

The fourth new case is a 42-year-old Filipino woman who arrived from Manila on July 7, who has no signs of infection. The contact tracing has found no close contacts for this patient.

Cambodia

Cambodia on Tuesday reported 825 new COVID-19 infections including 421 imported cases, pushing the national total caseload to 68,796, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said in a statement.

Twenty-one more fatalities had been confirmed, taking the overall death toll to 1,149, the ministry said, adding that 1,022 other patients recovered, raising the total number of recoveries to 61,039.

A coronavirus patient receives treatment at a hospital in Najaf, Iraq on July 14, 2021. (ANMAR KHALIL / AP)

Iraq

Iraq reported on Monday 9,883 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily record since the outbreak of the pandemic, raising the nationwide caseload to 1,501,595, the Iraqi Health Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry also confirmed 62 more deaths, bringing the death toll from the virus to 17,892, while the total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 8,278 to 1,364,545.

The epidemiological situation is serious in Iraq, with a large number of patients in critical condition, deputy health minister Hani al-Uqabi said in a statement.

 "At the peak of the third wave of the pandemic,  the number of infections and deaths in our country are constantly increasing," al-Uqabi said, adding the number of medical personnel is insufficient.

Indonesia

Millions of Muslims in Indonesia on Tuesday celebrated Eid al-Adha, one of the most important Islamic festivals, as President Joko Widodo pledged that tighter coronavirus restrictions would remain in place until infections dropped.

COVID-19 cases in Indonesia are currently among the highest in the world due to the rapid spread of the Delta variant, despite the imposition since early this month of the strictest mobility restrictions so far during the pandemic.

Jokowi, as the president is widely known, advised Indonesians to celebrate Eid al-Adha at home following strict health protocols to prevent infections. Police and transport authorities have also set up checkpoints to prevent travel in the world’s largest Muslim majority nation.

In a streamed statement on the eve of the holiday, Jokowi said movement restrictions will only be lifted once cases have dropped, noting new variants meant the pandemic was not over.

Muslims mark Eid al-Adha by slaughtering animals such as cattle and goats and the meat is shared among family and also donated to the poor.

Many mosques plan to distribute the meat donation door-to-door to prevent large gatherings, local media reported, though a number of mosque were reported to have flouted the COVID-19 restrictions and held mass prayers. 

Iran

Iran imposed a one-week lockdown in the capital and a nearby province on Tuesday as daily COVID-19 caseloads hit a record high amid a fifth wave of the pandemic, state television reported.

The lockdown affects Tehran and Alborz provinces, with only essential businesses allowed to stay open. Most offices, theatres and sports facilities must shut down in an effort to prevent the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, the TV said.

Iran, the epicentre of the pandemic in the Middle East, reported 27,444 new cases on Tuesday, breaking the earlier record of 25,582 on April 14. Deaths rose by 250 to 87,624.

The government has been accused on social media of mismanagement over the country's slow vaccination drive with only 2.3 million people fully vaccinated from a population of 83 million. Officials have blamed US sanctions for hampering efforts to buy foreign vaccines and delays in deliveries.

Israel

Israel's Ministry of Health reported 1,237 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the total tally in the country to 852,745.

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Israel increased to 7,369, the highest since March 30.

The death toll from the virus in Israel rose by two to 6,450, while the number of patients in serious condition decreased from 61 to 60, said the ministry.

Japan

The so-called bubble to control COVID-19 infections at the Olympic Athlete's Village in Tokyo is already "broken" and poses a risk of spreading infections to the general populace, a prominent public health expert said on Tuesday.

Games officials on Sunday reported the first COVID-19 case among competitors in the athletes' village in Tokyo where 11,000 athletes are expected to stay. Since July 2, Tokyo 2020 organizers have reported 58 positive cases among athletes, officials and journalists.

"It's obvious that the bubble system is kind of broken," said Kenji Shibuya, the former director of the Institute for Population Health at King's College London.

"My biggest concern is, of course, there will be a cluster of infections in the village or some of the accommodation and interaction with local people."

Insufficient testing at the border and the impossibility of controlling people's movements mean that the Games could exacerbate the spread of the infectious Delta variant of the virus, he added.

New COVID-19 cases in Tokyo reached 1,410 on Saturday, a near six month high, while the Games are due to start in just three days.

Public health experts have warned that seasonal factors, increased mobility, and the spread of the Delta variant could lead to a surge past 2,000 cases per day in Tokyo by next month, levels that could drive the city's medical system to breaking point.

ALSO READ: Thailand bans gatherings as virus cases, deaths hit record

A man receives a dose of Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus at a vaccination point in the Abylkhan Kasteyev State Museum of Arts of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Almaty on April 17, 2021. (RUSLAN PRYANIKOV / AFP)

Kazakhstan

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered his cabinet on Monday to look into the possibility of importing and locally producing the Russian-developed Sputnik Light vaccine, his office said.

The Central Asian nation already produces the Sputnik V vaccine, developed earlier, at a local plant in addition to importing it from Russia.

Laos

The Lao Ministry of Health on Tuesday recorded an all-time high of daily COVID-19 cases at 170 in the last 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 3,710.

The National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control reported 170 imported COVID-19 cases and no new locally transmitted cases, Deputy Director General of the Department of Communicable Diseases Control under Lao Ministry of Health, Sisavath Soutthaniraxay, told a press conference here on Tuesday.

Malaysia

Malaysia eased virus protocols following the speeding up of the nation’s vaccine rollout, Deputy Prime Minister Ismail Yaakob Sabri announced.

Office attendance in the public sector will be raised to 40 percent to boost productivity, and accounting services will be allowed to operate with 60 percent capacity, he said. 

Business hours for daily and wet markets will be extended from 6 am to 4 pm. Ports, airports and logistics sectors can operate 24 hours, according to the statement.

Malaysia aims to fully vaccinate all its adult population by October, the country’s prime minister said on Sunday.

Malaysia reported another 12,366 new COVID-19 infections, the health ministry said on Tuesday, bringing the national total to 939,899.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that eight of the new cases are imported and 12,358 are local transmissions.

Another 93 more deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to 7,241.

Mongolia

Mongolia recorded 1,309 new COVID-19 cases over the last 24 hours, raising the nationwide tally to 149,733, the country's health ministry said Tuesday.

Around 8,400 samples were tested across the country in the past day, and the latest confirmed cases were local infections, the ministry said in a statement.

The disease has claimed 772 lives in Mongolia since the country's first case was reported in March last year

New Zealand

New Zealand reported six cases of COVID-19 in recent returnees at the border and no cases in the community on Tuesday.

The six newly imported cases include three of the confirmed cases aboard the Mattina container ship, which is currently quarantined in Bluff in the South Island. The other three border cases came from Fiji and South Korea, according to the Ministry of Health.

Pakistan

Pakistan is facing new challenges in its fight against COVID-19 as the positivity rate in some areas of the country has passed 20 percent, officials and the country's National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said.

Amid rising cases of the Delta variant of the virus, the country confirmed 2,145 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, the NCOC, the department leading Pakistan's campaign against the pandemic, said on Tuesday.

The NCOC said in a statement that the country's number of overall cases rose to 993,872 amid the fear of a fourth wave.

Muslim pilgrims practice social distancing as they pray at the Namira Mosque in Arafat during the annual hajj pilgrimage, near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia on July 19, 2021. Tens of thousands of vaccinated Muslim pilgrims circled Islam's holiest site in Mecca on Sunday, but remained socially distanced and wore masks as the coronavirus takes its toll on the hajj for a second year running. (AMR NABIL / AP)

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia announced on Monday that the Hajj season is so far free from COVID-19 and other contagious diseases, Al Ekhbariay TV reported.

The Health Ministry Spokesman Mohammed Al-Abdulaali told a press conference that the health condition of pilgrims is reassuring and there is no Hajj-related COVID-19 case in the kingdom.

Health sectors are standing by to implement the precautionary plans and manage the crowds, he added.

Meanwhile, Security Spokesman of the Interior Ministry Talal Al-Shalhoub said security forces work to ensure pilgrims follow social distancing at all sites.

The police are also guarding the ritual sites to prevent the entry of unregistered individuals, Al-Shalhoub added.

Singapore

Singapore will tighten social restrictions from July 22, including halting restaurant dining and banning gatherings of more than two people, its health ministry said on Tuesday, as coronavirus cases rise further.

New local cases almost doubled on Monday from the previous day. Ong Ye Kung, the health minister, said 184 new cases were expected to be confirmed on Tuesday and that vaccinations had been completed for half the city-state’s population.

Group gatherings will be cut from five people to just two through Aug 18, authorities said at a Tuesday briefing, with the measures to be reviewed after two weeks. Singapore will also unveil a virus support package in the coming days, which Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said would “take reference” from earlier aid. A prior package cost S$1.2 billion (US$878 million), funded by a reallocation of money.

The new restrictions, announced on the Muslim Hari Raya Haji holiday -- also known as the festival of sacrifice -- underscore Singapore’s struggle in shifting from the strict controls that have been part of its “COVID-zero” strategy toward a new normal that treats the disease as endemic.

They cast doubt on whether the city-state will be able to fulfill a pledge to reopen pegged to its vaccination drive. The island nation had planned to announce further easing of curbs in the second half of July - when more than 50 percent of the population is fully vaccinated - and again when it hits the two-thirds mark around its National Day on Aug 9.

“Given the speed of infections, and the rate that new clusters are growing, we will need to temporarily slow down the spread of the virus to give us time to raise the coverage of our vaccination program, especially among the older population,” Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong said. “Once we have slowed down the new clusters and hit higher vaccination rates, we will be able to continue with our reopening journey.”

The country had eased some dining-in measures only a few weeks ago and changed the way it reports on progress against COVID-19 to focus on key trends and the number of severe virus cases while dropping detailed information about individual infections.

Singapore is carrying out 80,000 vaccinations per day, and 70-75 percent of those are second doses, authorities said. The country has administered a total of 6.8 million doses as of Sunday, with 48.3 percent of the population having received both jabs.

South Korean Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum speaks during a meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters at the government complex in Sejong, South Korea on July 20, 2021. Kim on Tuesday apologized for "failing to carefully take care of the health" of hundreds of sailors who contracted the coronavirus on a navy ship taking part in an anti-piracy mission off East Africa. (KIM JU-HYUNG / YONHAP VIA AP)

South Korea

South Korea's prime minister and defense minister apologzed as hundreds of COVID-19-infected sailors were flown to Seoul on Tuesday after a navy destroyer patrolling the waters off Africa was found to be riddled with the coronavirus.

Almost 250 of the 301-strong unvaccinated crew aboard the destroyer Munmu the Great were infected, the country's biggest cluster of COVID-19 military cases, sparking a public furore at the government's failure to protect those serving abroad.

"I apologize for having failed to take better care of the health of our soldiers who devoted themselves to the country," Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum told an intra-agency COVID-19 meeting as he promised treatment and recovery support for the crew, which includes 12 in critical condition.

Defence Minister Suh Wook apologized for not immunizing the crew before they departed for the Gulf of Aden in early February on an eight-month counter-piracy mission, and said he would examine anti-virus policies for all overseas military units.

The rare double apology underscored simmering anger in South Korea over the handling of the pandemic as a fourth wave of infections sweeps through the country with just 13 percent of the 52 million population fully inoculated amid vaccine shortages.

The destroyer left South Korea just a couple of weeks before officials kicked off a national vaccination program. Authorities decided that inoculating at sea would not be feasible due to limited emergency responses and cold storage requirements for some vaccines, the defense ministry said.

But opposition lawmakers said the government should have sought help from other countries or replaced the crew with vaccinated personnel, and urged President Moon Jae-in to apologize and fire Suh.

Moon said he would accept criticism over the "insufficient, complacent" handling of the issue, and ordered improved measures to ensure the health and safety of troops and diplomats serving abroad.

ALSO READ: S. Korea vaccine rollout grinds to a halt as 'new cases hit record'

In this photo released by the Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division, President Rodrigo Duterte (left) prepares for his second dose of the COVID-19 Sinopharm vaccine by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III (right) in Malacañang Presidential palace, Manila on July 12, 2021. (KING RODRIGUES / MALACANANG PRESIDENTIAL PHOTOGRAPHERS DIVISION VIA AP)

The Philippines

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said more stringent movement restrictions may be needed after the country detected cases of the more transmissible delta coronavirus variant.

“We may need to reimpose stricter restrictions to avoid mass gathering and prevent superspreader events,” Duterte said in a recorded briefing aired late Monday. The reported local cases of the delta variant is “a cause for serious alarm and concern,” he said.

The Philippines, home to the second-worst COVID-19 outbreak in Southeast Asia, has recorded more than 1.5 million cases and 26,786 deaths as of July 19.

Turkey

The number of daily COVID-19 cases in Turkey has increased by 30 percent in one week, after restrictions were lifted on July 1, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Monday.

In his post on Twitter, Koca urged Turkish citizens to comply with the anti-virus measures as the country enters Eid al-Adha, a four-day holiday from July 20 to July 23.

Turkey on Monday registered 7,667 new COVID-19 cases, raising its total tally to 5,537,386, according to the health ministry.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 50 to 50,604, while 4,152 more recovered in the last 24 hours.

Nurses wearing face masks walk past an electricity box decorated with a coronavirus-themed painting along a street in Hanoi on July 8, 2021. (MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP)

Vietnam

Vietnam has reached agreements on technology transfers for Russian and US coronavirus vaccines, the government said in a statement, without elaborating.

The Southeast Asian country is keen to boost its vaccine capacity and the World Health Organization said in May it was reviewing a proposal by an unidentified manufacturer in Vietnam to become an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine technology hub.

Vietnam's health ministry was also in talks with Russia to produce the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, media has reported.

Tuesday's statement also said Vietnam will receive 20 million more doses of the mRNA shot co-developed by US company Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech, raising the total to 51 million doses.

Up to now, Vietnam has secured deals for 105 million doses of vaccines and is in talks with other manufacturers on deals for a further 70 million shots, the government said, adding it hoped to receive the shots in 2021 and early 2022.

The Southeast Asian country has received around 10.6 million doses of vaccines, and is due to receive supplies of Moderna's vaccine from the United States via the COVAX facility.

Vietnam has also asked China for doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, the government statement added.

Vietnam's health ministry said the country's home-grown vaccine, NanoCovax, was expected to be widely administered by the end of 2021.