A technician tests swabs from patients for COVID-19 infection at the Central Health Laboratory in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, on April 11, 2020. (MOHAMMED HUWAIS / AFP)

SYDNEY /  ANKARA / AMMAN / ADEN - Yemen received its first COVID-19 vaccines on Wednesday, a week after the internationally recognised government declared a health emergency in areas under its control.

The 360,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine arrived by plane at Aden, part of a consignment from the global COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme expected to total 1.9 million doses this year, COVAX said.

In Aden, the government’s interim capital in a six-year-old war, patients at an isolation centre in the grounds of a hospital lay on temporary beds in tents next to oxygen cylinders, breathing heavily.

“We need more staff, because the rise in cases is not normal. We are exhausted from work, exhausted,” said Zainab al-Qaisi, a doctor and director of the centre. “The centre is overwhelmed. We need oxygen, to expand intensive care across all provinces.”

Aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said last week it had seen a dramatic influx of critically ill COVID-19 patients in various parts of Yemen, and that all aspects of the COVID-19 response were lacking.

“While some countries have successfully vaccinated half of their population, Yemen finds itself at the back of the queue,” said MSF’s Head of Mission in Yemen, Raphael Veicht.

Yemen’s emergency coronavirus committee reported 132 confirmed and 19 deaths on Tuesday. It has recorded more than 4,100 coronavirus infections and 864 deaths so far though the true figure is widely thought much higher.

Australia 

Australia has fallen far behind its target for COVID-19 vaccinations, figures showed on Wednesday, with only about 670,000 people inoculated against an initial target of 4 million by end-March.

The slow rollout, which puts Australia behind many other developed countries, has been blamed by the government on supply issues from Europe, while recent floods across the east coast have slowed the delivery of vaccines.

State governments have also complained about slower-than-expected distribution and a lack of certainty on supplies, while local media have reported errors by private contractors hired to assist with the rollout.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt on Wednesday, however, pointed to a record 72,826 vaccinations on Tuesday, which he said showed the inoculation programme was accelerating following the start of domestic production of the AstraZeneca vaccine by Australian biotech company CSL Ltd.

Australia reported a drop-off in new cases of locally acquired COVID-19 in Queensland on Wednesday, fuelling optimism that a three-day snap lockdown in state capital Brisbane will be lifted ahead of the Easter holidays.

More than two million residents of Australia’s third-largest city have been asked to stay home until Thursday evening as authorities rushed to contain two distinct virus clusters, which have grown to 17 cases.

Vietnam

Vietnam recorded nine new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, raising its total tally to 2,603, according to its Ministry of Health.

The new cases are all Vietnamese citizens who recently entered the country from abroad and were quarantined upon arrival, said the ministry.

 About 48,300 people from 19 localities across Vietnam have so far been vaccinated against COVID-19 since March 8 when the Southeast Asian country kicked off its mass inoculation campaign.

Japan

Tokyo reported 414 new daily COVID-19 cases, bringing the capital's tally since the outbreak of the pandemic here to 129,860.

The latest figure compares to 364 cases reported the previous day, with the jump in daily infections coming just more than a week since a COVID-19 state of emergency was lifted for the greater Tokyo area.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh's Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Wednesday reported 5,358 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 611,295 with 9,046 deaths including 52 on Wednesday.

Indonesia

The COVID-19 cases in Indonesia on Wednesday rose by 5,937 within one day to 1,511,712, with the death toll adding by 104 to 40,858, the Health Ministry said.

Israel

A new coronavirus strain has been identified in Israel, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday, and the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, used primarily in a swift nationwide inoculation drive, appeared to be effective against it.

Separately, a bid by the Israeli government to secure 36 million more Pfizer/BioNTech doses for use as booster shots or for children once they are eligible hit a snag this week over political infighting.

The cabinet had been set for Monday to approve the purchase, at around 3.5 billion shekels (US$1.05 billion), but it was called off in a squabble between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, Benny Gantz, who heads a rival party, over judicial appointments.

The health ministry, which has spent 2.6 billion shekels on vaccines, without disclosing the exact number of Pfizer and Moderna doses purchased, said it had sufficient supplies “for the present round of vaccinations”.

But it said it was important to acquire more doses to fend off variants and inoculate children when that becomes possible.

The ministry said separately it discovered no evidence the new variant caused widespread infection or severe morbidity, and said it appeared to be scarce and may be disappearing entirely.

More than half of Israel’s population of nine million have received both doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Infection rates have been dropping steadily, and Israel’s economy has largely reopened.

Israel's Ministry of Health reported 506 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, raising the total confirmed tally in the country to 832,574.

The death toll from the virus stands at 6,189, while the number of patients in serious condition decreased from 441 to 405, out of 611 hospitalized patients.

Malaysia

Malaysia reported 1,482 new COVID-19 infections, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday, bringing the national total to 345,500.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that two of the new cases are imported and with 1,480 being local transmissions.

Seven more deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to 1,272.

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape received the first COVID-19 shot in the Pacific Island country on Tuesday under a small vaccination programme aimed at curbing soaring infections.

Australia sent Papua New Guinea 8,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine last week after warning of a worsening humanitarian crisis.

Fears of “vaccine nationalism” in countries producing shots have increased concerns about the need for the nation of about 10 million people, many of them living in impoverished, isolated communities, to receive vaccine supplies quickly.

Marape became the first to be inoculated to try to boost confidence in the vaccine in Papua New Guinea, but priority will otherwise be given to frontline health workers.

Papua New Guinea, which was administered by Australia before gaining independence, has recorded more than 5,600 cases of the virus, according to figures released on Tuesday.

South Korea

South Korea reported 506 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Tuesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 103,088.

The daily caseload was up from 447 in the previous day, rising above 500 in four days.

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

Of the new cases, 156 were Seoul residents and 106 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.

Fifteen cases were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 7,588.

Two more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 1,731. The total fatality rate stood at 1.68 percent.

ALSO READ: Asian nations seek supplies after India export curbs hit COVAX

Brunei

Brunei's national tally of COVID-19 cases has increased to 210 with three new cases reported on Tuesday.

According to Brunei's Ministry of Health, Case 208 is a 49-year-old man who arrived in the country from Manila. Case 209 is a 24-year-old man who arrived in the country from Nepal via Kuala Lumpur. Case 210 is a woman aged 59 years old who arrived in the country from Egypt via Kuala Lumpur.

All the new cases arrived in the country on March 17. The contact tracing for all the three cases is still being conducted and there are now 13 active cases being treated in the National Isolation Center who are all in a stable condition.

Turkey

Turkey reported 37,303 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, breaking its record of single-day infections since the outbreak of the pandemic, according to its health ministry.

Among the new cases are 1,376 symptomatic patients, and the total number in the country has reached 3,277,880.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 155 to 31,385, while the total recoveries climbed to 2,995,033 after 19,925 more recovered in the last 24 hours.

The rate of pneumonia in COVID-19 patients stands at 3.6 percent and the number of seriously ill patients is 2,054 in the country, said the ministry.

A total of 235,298 tests were conducted over the past day, taking the overall number of tests for coronavirus in Turkey to 38,338,045.

Jordan

Jordan said on Tuesday the total COVID-19 infections in the country exceeded 600,000, urging the public to remain cautious and abide by safety measures as fatalities have also been on the rise.

On Tuesday, the country reported 7,751 confirmed cases, increasing the caseload to 605,007, while the death toll of the virus rose to 6,747 after 96 new fatalities were added, according to a joint statement issued by the Prime Ministry and the Ministry of Health.

A total of 49,334 coronavirus tests were also conducted on Tuesday, bringing the total number of tests administered since the outbreak of the pandemic to 5,875,000, according to the statement.

It added that 9,535 recoveries were registered in hospitals and home quarantines, bringing the total number of recoveries to 503,952.

There are currently 94,308 active COVID-19 cases in Jordan, said the statement.

Iraq

The Iraqi Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday 5,995 new coronavirus cases, raising the total nationwide infections to 844,260.

The ministry also reported 37 new deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 14,286, while the total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 4,915 to 755,350.

A total of 7,991,239 tests have been carried out across the country since the outbreak of the disease in February 2020, with 40,964 done during the day.

It said that 13,020 people were vaccinated during the past 24 hours across the country, bringing the total number of doses received to 41,205 since the vaccines arrived early this month.

Kuwait

The Kuwaiti Health Ministry reported on Tuesday 1,271 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total infections in the country to 230,821.

The ministry also announced 10 more fatalities, taking the death toll to 1,308, while the tally of recoveries rose by 1,308 to 215,250. A total of 14,263 coronavirus patients are receiving treatment, including 240 in the intensive care units.

At a regular meeting of the government on Monday, Kuwaiti Minister of Health Bassel Al-Sabah said that hospital admissions and the number of the infected needing critical care remain on an upward trajectory, while the recovery rate has now reached 93 percent.

READ MORE: Indonesia's virus cases top 1.5 million, toll exceeds 40,000

Iran

 Iran reported 10,250 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, raising its nationwide caseload to 1,875,234.

The pandemic has so far claimed 62,569 lives in Iran, up by 91 in the past 24 hours, said Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, during her daily briefing.

A total of 1,608,807 people have recovered from the disease and been discharged from hospitals, while 3,953 remain in intensive care units, she noted.

Qatar

A Qatari health official has called for a full lockdown in the country to stem the spread of the coronavirus as the country continues to report an increasing number of infections on a daily basis, Al Jazeera reported.

Ahmed al-Mohammed, acting chairman of Hamad Medical Corp. Intensive Care Units, said Qatar was witnessing a peak in the number of cases since the first wave, including a reportedly large number of infections among children under the age of 14, Al Jazeera said, citing an interview on Qatar TV.

The Qatari health ministry on Tuesday announced 720 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 179,184, the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.

Meanwhile, 412 more recovered from the virus, bringing the overall recoveries to 163,684, while the fatalities increased by three to 289, according to a ministry statement quoted by QNA.

A total of 1,727,398 persons in Qatar have taken lab tests for COVID-19 so far, while the total number of vaccine doses administered is 790,676.

Myanmar

Myanmar reported 19 new COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours, according to a statement from the Health and Sports Ministry on Tuesday.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases rose to 142,412 and its death toll stood at 3,206, the statement said.

Some 131,793 recovered patients have been discharged from hospitals so far.

A total of 1,497 samples were tested for COVID-19 on Tuesday, down from around 10,000 samples tested daily in early February.

Lebanon

Lebanon registered on Tuesday 2,668 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 465,007, the Health Ministry reported.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the virus went up by 48 to 6,184 in the country.

India

Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, the local government in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has ordered an extension of the closure of local schools until April 15, officials said Wednesday.

According to the order issued by the state's school education department, the local schools will remain closed for classes 1 to 8 until April 15. The decision was made over a recent spike in COVID-19 infections locally.

Authorities at Delhi airport Wednesday began random COVID-19 testing of arriving passengers, officials said.

Officials said passengers from various states who will be found COVID-19 positive at arrival "shall be mandatorily quarantined."

The step has been taken in wake of the surge in COVID-19 cases in various states that is viewed as the emergent second wave.

India's COVID tally rose to 12,149,335 on Wednesday as 53,480 new cases were reported from across the country, according to the latest figures released by the federal health ministry.

Besides, 354 deaths had also been reported since Tuesday morning, taking the death toll to 162,468.

There are still 552,566 active cases in the country, while 11,434,301 people have been discharged so far from hospitals after medical treatment.

There was an increase of 11,846 active cases during the previous 24 hours, out of which nearly 4,000 were reported from the southwestern state of Maharashtra.

Indonesia 

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US$450 million loan to Indonesia to help Bio Farma, a state-owned vaccine supplier, procure and deliver safe and effective vaccines against the COVID-19, the Manila-based bank said on Wednesday.

The ADB said the Responsive COVID-19 Vaccines for Recovery (RECOVER) project will fund the purchase of at least 65 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine for priority groups determined by the Indonesian government.

The project is supported by ADB's 9 billion U.S. dollars Asia Pacific Vaccine Access Facility (APVAX), launched in December 2020 to offer rapid and equitable vaccine-related support to ADB developing members.

For a vaccine to be eligible for APVAX financing, it must meet one of three criteria. It must be procured via the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility (COVAX), prequalified by the World Health Organization, or authorized by a Stringent Regulatory Authority.

Mongolia 

The Mongolian government on Wednesday decided to adopt stricter prevention and control measures in the country's capital Ulan Bator due to resurging COVID-19 cases.

The new restrictions will go into effect from Saturday and last for 14 days.

Such services as restaurants, lounges, sauna, cinemas and fitness centers will not be allowed to open during the two weeks.

Mongolia reported 377 new COVID-19 cases and two more deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide counts to 8,447 and 12 respectively, the country's National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD) said Wednesday.

Ulan Bator, home to more than half of Mongolia's population of 3.3 million, is the hardest-hit region in the country. Around 7,000 of the total confirmed cases were detected in the capital city.

Cambodia 

Cambodia will begin to inoculate its citizens with the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines from April 1 onwards, the country's Ad-hoc Committee for COVID-19 Vaccination said in a statement on Wednesday.

"COVID-19 vaccine is a new tool in addition to the existing health measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to save people's lives," Health Ministry secretary of state Or Vandine, chairwoman of the Ad-hoc Committee for COVID-19 Vaccination, said in the statement.

The upcoming inoculation campaign announced after a new batch of Sinovac vaccines Cambodia purchased from China's pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech arrived on March 26.

The vaccines are safe and effective, and many countries in the region and in the world have been using them, the statement said, adding that some countries have already inoculated millions of their citizens.

Cambodia on Wednesday confirmed another 63 local COVID-19 cases linked to the February 20 community transmission, bringing the total to 1,914 so far, said a Ministry of Health (MoH) statement.

Cambodia on Wednesday confirmed two more deaths from COVID-19, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to 13, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said in a statement.

The Southeast Asian nation has officially reported a total of 2,440 confirmed COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic in January last year, the MoH said, adding that currently, there are 1,234 active cases in the kingdom.

Thailand 

The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) has demanded a total of 40,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses for some 20,000 aviation personnel.

CAAT Director Suttipong Kongpool said on Wednesday the agency has already called on the government-run Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) to provide the sought-after 40,000 coronavirus vaccines for people currently employed in the country's aviation industry.

Pilots, crew members as well as airport officials and employees will dutifully work in close contact with foreign passengers, who may visit some popular tourist destinations in Thailand without quarantine measures from the upcoming July, Suttipong said.

Thailand on Wednesday confirmed 42 cases of coronavirus infection, according to the Center for the CCSA.

Thailand confirmed 42 cases of coronavirus infection, according to the Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA). Of the new cases, 24 were domestic infections and 18 others referred to imported cases, CCSA spokeswoman Apisamai Srirangsan said.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) has demanded a total of 40,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses for some 20,000 aviation personnel.

The Philippines

The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported on Wednesday 6,128 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 747,288.

The death toll climbed to 13,297 after 106 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said.