Indians wearing face masks as a precaution against the coronavirus shop at a Sunday market in Jammu, India, March 21, 2021. (CHANNI ANAND / AP)

MELBOURNE / ISLAMABAD / JAKARTA / BANGKOK / TEHRAN / SINGAPORE / DOHA / KUWAIT CITY / RAMALLAH / BEIRUT / NEW DELHI / WELLINGTON / ULAN BATOR / MANILA / HANOI / KATHMANDU / KUALA LUMPUR / JERUSALEM / PHNOM PENH - India’s health ministry warned on Sunday that a huge gathering of devotees for a Hindu festival could send coronavirus cases surging, as the country recorded the most new infections in nearly four months.

The ministry said up to 40 people had already tested positive for COVID-19 around the site of the weeks-long Mahakumbh that began this month and peaks in April in the Himalayan holy town of Haridwar, next to the Ganges.

India reported 43,846 new cases and 197 additional deaths on Sunday, the highest figures recorded this year

The festival is held only once every 12 years. Millions of Hindus are expected to crowd the site next month, as bathing in the river during this period is believed to absolve people of sins and bring salvation from the cycle of life and death.

READ MORE: India infections hit 4 month high, some lockdowns return

India's COVID-19 tally rose to 11,599,130 on Sunday after 43,846 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours, according to the latest data from the federal health ministry.

The death toll rose to 159,755 as 197 additional deaths were logged.

Both the daily tally and toll were the highest recorded this year.

There were 309,087 active cases in the country, up 20,693 from the day before, of which 13,446 cases were reported from the south-western state of Maharashtra.

So far, over 44 million people have been vaccinated in India.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan's Public Health Ministry reported 10 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, raising the total infections to 56,103, including 3,917 active cases.

The death toll went up by one to 2,463, the ministry said in a statement.

Australia

Australia may consider reducing its quarantine requirements and allowing returned travelers to isolate at home as more people receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Brendan Murphy, secretary of the Department of Health.

“Our risk tolerance will change over the second half of this year,” Murphy said on Sky News’ Sunday Agenda program. 

The first step is to reduce domestic restrictions, make sure state borders aren’t be closed and that officials are more confident responding to small outbreaks, he said.

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Murphy said he is hopeful that “pretty good international travel will happen next year” but it’s difficult to predict what will happen with international borders because of unknowns surrounding the vaccines. There are still questions on how long protection will last with inoculations, and how effective they are at preventing asymptomatic transmission and against various strains of the virus, he said.

Murphy said he was confident the vaccines were safe despite some European countries halting use of the AstraZeneca Plc treatment because of concerns about some side effects.

Australia is on target to inoculate all residents with a first dose by the end of October and the government is trying to bring that forward as much as possible, Murphy said.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh recorded 2,172 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases and 22 more deaths on Sunday, bringing the tally to 570,878 with 8,690 deaths, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said.

The total number of recoveries reached 522,405 after 1,687 new recoveries were reported on Sunday, said the DGHS.

Brunei

Brunei reported two newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing the tally to 205.

The number of recoveries rose by one to 188 while the death toll remained at three.

Cambodia

Cambodia on Sunday reported 48 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 1,680, according to a Ministry of Health (MoH) statement.

The new infections included 47 local cases and one imported case, MoH's secretary of state and spokeswoman Or Vandine said in the statement.

On Saturday, Siem Reap provincial authorities restricted travel to and from the Kok Chak commune in Siem Reap after a 35-year-old local man tested positive.

The Southeast Asian nation has been enduring a third community COVID-19 outbreak since Feb 20, with at least 1,162 people infected so far.

To date, Cambodia has registered a total of 1,680 confirmed cases, along with three deaths and 950 recoveries, the MoH said. 

In this March 8, 2021 photo released by the Indonesian Presidential Palace, workers unload containers containing the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine upon its arrival at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia. (PHOTO / INDONESIAN PRESIDENT PALACE VIA AP)

Indonesia

AstraZeneca said on Sunday its COVID-19 vaccine contains no pork-derived ingredients, countering an assertion in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, that the drug violates Islamic law.

Indonesia’s highest Muslim clerical council, the Indonesia Ulema Council, said on its website Friday that the vaccine is “haram” because the manufacturing process uses “trypsin from the pork pancreas.”

The council and the country’s food and drug agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Indonesian authorities on Friday approved the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine after reviewing reports that it had caused blood clots among some recipients in Europe.

On Sunday, Indonesia's health ministry reported 4,396 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the tally to 1,460,184.

The death toll rose by 103 to 39,550 while the total number of recoveries increased by 6,065 to 1,290,790.

Iran

Iran's health ministry on Saturday reported 7,540 new COVID-19 cases, raising the tally to 1,793,805.

The death toll rose by 75 to 61,724, said Sima Sadat Lari,  spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health and Medical Education.

Of the newly infected patients, 849 were hospitalized, said Lari.

A total of 1,536,606 people have recovered from the disease while 3,849 remained in intensive care units, she added.

Iraq

The Iraqi Ministry of Health reported on Saturday 4,674 new coronavirus cases, raising the tally to 789,390.

The ministry also reported 32 more deaths, raising the death toll to 13,969.

The total recoveries went up by 3,795 to 710,699.

In a statement, the ministry warned of the seriousness of increasing coronavirus infections, saying that "the continued increase in coronavirus infections will pose a great danger to the health system, especially when health institutions are unable to take in critical cases, which leads to more deaths."

The ministry said in a statement that about 50 percent of the cases died in 48 hours of hospitalization because they arrived too late.

Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government won’t impose any more lockdowns, not even after Tuesday’s national election.

“People are saying to themselves: ‘OK, they are waiting, surely after the election there will be another lockdown,”’ Netanyahu told Army Radio in an interview on Sunday. “No way! There is no need for it. Countries are imposing lockdowns, because they don’t have vaccines.”

Israel has lifted a restriction on the number of incoming and outgoing passengers at the airport, after the Supreme Court ruled that the two-month-long measure has been "unconstitutional”.

The coronavirus cabinet decided on Saturday night to lift a measure that restricted the number of arrivals at Israel's international Ben Gurion Airport to 3,000 per day, effective from midnight between Saturday and Sunday, according to a government statement.

Israel's Ministry of Health reported 590 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, raising the tally to 827,199.

The death toll rose by nine to 6,082 while the number of patients in serious condition decreased from 557 to 549, out of 866 patients receiving treatment in hospitals.

The total recoveries rose by 1,516 to 802,244 while the number of active cases decreased to 18,873.

The number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 reached nearly 5.16 million, or 55.5 percent of its total population.

READ MORE: Netanyahu's vaccine drive hasn't swung election in his favor

Japan

Japan is planning to require coronavirus tests from visitors coming from countries where the coronavirus variant infections are climbing, Health Minister Norihisa Tamura said on a program by national broadcaster a NHK.

“It’s important to prevent a spreading of coronavirus from overseas travelers. And it’s important to detect infected visitors,” Tamura said. “We’ll require them to test before the coming to Japan. We’ll test at quarantines and will inspect again three days later. We’ll test them three times. On top of that, we’ll will follow them for two weeks by using a GPS application when they actually enter the country.”

Regarding vaccine approvals, the minister said Japan may be able to secure the Pfizer vaccine for older people to get vaccinated twice by June. Evaluation of AstraZeneca’s vaccine is also proceeding, he said. Data for the domestic clinical trail of Moderna’s vaccine will be available by May, and if things move smoothly, there is a possibility it will to be approved as soon as then.

Kuwait

The Kuwaiti health ministry reported on Saturday 1,347 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 217,933.

The ministry also reported five more deaths, taking the death toll to 1,215, while the number of recoveries rose by 1,386 to 202,208. 

A total of 14,510 coronavirus patients were receiving treatment, including 230 in intensive care units.

Lebanon

Lebanon registered on Saturday 2,253 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 436,575, the health ministry reported.

Meanwhile, the death toll went up by 51 to 5,715.

Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan said on Saturday that his ministry has signed a new contract with Pfizer-BioNTech to provide Lebanon with 750,000 additional vaccines in May and June, raising the total number of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses to 910,000.

"This allows the completion of the vaccination process of the most vulnerable groups which should reduce the death rate and the intensive care bed occupancy rate," Hassan said.

The minister added that the government has opened the way for the private sector to import COVID-19 vaccines which will accelerate the vaccination process.

Malaysia

Malaysia reported 1,327 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing its tally to 333,040.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that 11 of the new cases were imported while the remaining 1,316 were locally transmitted.

Meanwhile, four more deaths were reported, raising the death toll to 1,233.

The total number of recoveries increased by 1,247 to 317,289, or 95.3 percent of all cases.

Of the existing 14,518 active cases, 154 patients were in intensive care units, 65 of whom were in need of assisted breathing.

Mongolia

Mongolia reported 170 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, raising its nationwide tally to 4,976, the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases said Sunday.

Of the new cases, 168 were detected in Ulan Bator, the country's capital and hardest-hit city, while the remaining two fresh infections were posted in the central province of Tuv, the center said in a statement.

Meanwhile, 126 more patients have recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries to 3,447, the center added.

Mongolia, with a population of 3.3 million, has so far recorded nine COVID-19 deaths since confirming its first case in March 2020.  

Myanmar

Myanmar reported six more COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing the tally in the country to 142,246, according to a release from the Ministry of Health and Sports.

The death toll remained at 3,204, according to the release.

A total of 131,763 patients have been discharged from the hospitals while over 2.52 million samples have been tested for COVID-19 so far, according to figures released by the ministry.

Nepal

Nepal's drug regulator has approved a COVID-19 vaccine developed by India's Bharat Biotech International Limited for emergency use, the third vaccine to get such an approval in Nepal.

Nepal’s Department of Drug Administration said in a notice that conditional permission has been granted for emergency use authorization for the Whole-Virion Inactivated Sars CoV-2 Vaccine (COVAXIN).

The South Asian country started the vaccination drive on Jan 27.      

"So far, we have inoculated first doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 1.67 million people in two phases," Shyam Raj Upreti, coordinator of the COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Committee, told Xinhua on Saturday.

New Zealand

New Zealand reported eight new COVID-19 cases in two days, said the Ministry of Health in a statement on Sunday.

All the new cases involved recent returnees who tested COVID-19 positive in managed isolation, said the ministry, adding that there were no new cases reported in the wider community.

The total number of active cases stood at 58, while the cumulative caseload reached 2,097, according to the ministry.

Pakistan

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, two days after receiving his first vaccine dose, government officials said, urging people not to be deterred from getting vaccinated.

Health Minister Faisal Sultan said Khan was “in good health” with a mild cough and fever and was self-isolating at home, adding that the 68-year-old premier had likely been infected much before he got his first vaccine shot on Thursday.

Sultan told local television people should not link the prime minister’s coronavirus infection with the vaccine, which takes times to build antibodies.

Asad Umar, the minister in-charge of the country’s COVID-19 operations, said in a tweet it was “certain that PM had been infected prior to vaccination”.

Khan’s positive test comes as Pakistan sees a steep rise in infections. According to numbers released by government, 3,876 people tested positive in the last 24 hours – the highest number of daily infections since early July – taking the total number of infections in the country past 620,000.

There were also 42 more deaths, taking the total to 13,799.

Pakistan has enacted a travel ban that will remain effective from March 23 to April 5, according to PTI. 

Amid a rise in coronavirus cases, authorities imposed restrictions in most of the main urban areas. Limits on wedding halls, cinemas and outdoor dining have been extended until April 15, and lockdowns will continue in the worst-affected provinces.

READ MORE: South Korea seen revising rules on virus tests for foreign workers

Palestinians wait to receive their first dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination campaign at the health ministry in the West Bank city of Nablus, March 21, 2021. (MAJDI MOHAMMED / AP)

Palestine

Palestine on Saturday announced a partial easing of the current full lockdown, including the reopening of stores and restaurants.

Government spokesman Ibrahim Melhem said the new measures will be implemented for two weeks, adding that stores and restaurants will be allowed to reopen while maintaining strict health measures, and with a maximum capacity of 30 percent of their staff.

Cafes will only be allowed to open for delivery services. Banks are asked to operate at an emergency pace and in accordance with the instructions of the Palestine Monetary Authority. Industrial sectors should be working at a maximum capacity of 30 percent of their staff, he added.

But Melhem said a full lockdown will be imposed all over the West Bank on Fridays and Saturdays and the movement of all kinds of vehicles will be prohibited.

He said a night-time curfew will remain in place and all stores will be closed except pharmacies and bakeries.

Meanwhile, the health ministry announced that a mass vaccination against coronavirus will start on Sunday morning in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

On Saturday, Palestine recorded 1,780 new coronavirus cases, 27 deaths and 1,695 recoveries in 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry. Currently, 192 coronavirus patients remain in intensive care units, the ministry said. 

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea reported rising coronavirus infections on Saturday, continuing a surge that highlights the need for tougher social distancing restrictions taking effect on Monday.

Internal border controls will be tightened, personal movement restricted and mask wearing made mandatory in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, which has been overwhelming the public health system.

The authorities in the Pacific island nation of 9 million people said they will ban mass gatherings, close schools and may order burials in a “designated mass grave”.

Saturday’s announcement of 295 infections for Thursday and 132 for Friday brings confirmed cases to 3,085 with 36 deaths, but health experts believe the true numbers are likely much higher.

Controller of the National Pandemic Response and Police Commissioner David Manning said in a statement that Richard Mendani, a member of parliament representing the Kerema Open electorate, had died after being infected with the coronavirus.

A New Zealand Defence aircraft on Saturday delivered four tonnes of personal protective equipment, health authorities said, including hand sanitizer, goggles, biohazard bags and surgical masks.

Qatar

The Qatari health ministry on Saturday reported 509 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 173,206, the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.

Meanwhile, another 328 patients have recovered, bringing the overall recoveries to 160,115, while the death toll went up by one to 272, according to a ministry statement quoted by QNA.

A total of 1,660,175 people in Qatar have been tested so far, while the total number of vaccine doses administered stood at 579,338. 

Singapore

Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 12 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, all imported, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 60,196.

The number of recoveries went up by 16 to 60,038 while the death toll remained at 30.

Thailand

Thailand reported 90 new COVID-19 cases Sunday, according to a report of the Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA).

Of the new cases, 81 were domestic infections while nine others were imported cases, the CCSA said in a report.

The new cases brought Thailand's total caseload to 27,803.

A second batch of COVID-19 vaccines that Thailand ordered from China's Sinovac arrived in Bangkok on Saturday.

The first batch Sinovac vaccines was delivered to Thailand on Feb 24. 

The Philippines

The Philippines will expand tighter COVID-19 rules to include four provinces surrounding the capital Manila, and restrict travel to and from these areas for two weeks beginning on Monday, as the country battles a renewed surge in infections.

The restrictions currently in effect in Metropolitan Manila will also be imposed in the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal, including night curfews and the prohibition of mass gatherings, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said on Sunday.

Only essential travel to and from the capital region and the four provinces, which Roque called the bubble area, will be allowed.

The Philippines recorded 7,757 additional COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the second-highest single-day increase in the Southeast Asian nation and marks the third straight day confirmed new cases topped 7,000.

Total recorded cases in the Philippines had risen to 663,794 while confirmed deaths rose by 39 to 12,968, among the highest in Asia.

Turkey

Turkey on Saturday reported 21,061 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the cumulative caseload to 2,992,694, said the health ministry.

The death toll rose by 95 to 29,959, while the total recoveries climbed by 18,815 to 2,807,572.

So far, more than 8,017,000 people have been vaccinated in the country.

UAE

The United Arab Emirates is expanding its COVID-19 vaccination program after having inoculated the majority of those at risk.

“Those eligible for vaccination, including citizens and residents aged 16 and above, can now get inoculated for free in any of the 205 vaccination locations,” state-run WAM reported late on Saturday, citing the Ministry of Health. So far, the country had prioritised those most at risk of infection, including the elderly and people with chronic diseases.

The oil-rich nation has one of the fastest coronavirus vaccine rollouts in the world, having administered more than 7 million doses to its population of about 10 million. 

Vietnam

Vietnam recorded no new cases of COVID-19 infection on Sunday, according to the country's Ministry of Health.

The tally remained at 2,572.

As many as 2,198 patients have recovered, the ministry said, adding that nearly 37,600 people were currently under quarantine.

Yemen

The transportation minister of the Houthi-controlled administration in Yemen, Zakaria al-Shami, died on Sunday of complications of coronavirus infection, two Yemeni officials said.

Shami was treated in hospital in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa, along with Prime Minister Abdulaziz bin Habtour from the same administration and other officials who have also been infected, they said.

Houthi officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Abdulaziz Alkumaim, the Houthi Planning Minister, said in social media posts Shami had died, but did not provide further details.