In this undated photo, commuters wearing protective face masks ride a bus in Bangkok, Thailand. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

MANILA / SUVA / SEOUL / ULAN BATOR / ISLAMABAD / WELLINGTON / BISHKEK / TEHRAN / TEL AVIV - Thailand’s national COVID-19 panel announced a one-month clampdown on movements from all residential camps for construction and factory workers in metropolitan Bangkok and four other provinces, as infections continue to climb and medical facilities reach capacity.

With the contagious delta variant now spreading in Thailand, new clusters found in housing for laborers have added to the strain on medical facilities and staff in the capital, challenging the government’s efforts to contain a surge that began early April.

The Labor Ministry will compensate all Thai and migrant workers as health authorities try to contain the virus’s spread from camps where workers eat and sleep in crowded quarters. The measures, which will affect construction sites in Bangkok and four southern provinces, will be effective from Monday, according to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha. He also asked the public for cooperation by limiting travel.

The US embassy in Thailand has rejected an appeal from its citizens to fly in COVID-19 vaccines, according to a report from Reuters.

However, the US embassy said that the US government was taking actions to facilitate vaccine access worldwide, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Last month, four US citizens' groups wrote to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, asking for Thailand to be made a pilot project for vaccinating US citizens abroad and claiming they should have the same rights as at home, according to Reuters.

Thailand’s drug regulator cleared Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for local use, making it the sixth shot approved in the country, according to a government spokeswoman. The country earlier approved vaccines from Sinovac Biotech, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Sinopharm for local use.

Australia

More than 500,000 residents of Sydney will go into lockdown for at least one week, as Australia races to control an outbreak of the highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus.

People who live or work in four of Sydney’s most populous areas will only be allowed to leave their homes for four specified essential reasons, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters Friday. The outbreak has climbed to 65 cases, with 17 new locally acquired cases recorded overnight.

While Berejiklian had previously barred about 1 million of Sydney’s population of 6 million from leaving the city, the new lockdown shows concern is rising about how the virus is quickly spreading in the local community and may get out of control.

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The lockdown “is in order for us to ensure that this doesn’t take a hold for weeks and weeks and we believe this is a proportionate response to the risk,” she said Friday.

Sydneysiders queue outside a vaccination center in Sydney on June 24, 2021, as residents were largely banned from leaving the city to stop a growing outbreak of the highly contagious Delta COVID-19 variant spreading to other regions. (SAEED KHAN / AFP)

Fiji

Fiji recorded 215 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and another death, Permanent Secretary for Health James Fong said on Friday.

The death case was a 34-year-old woman from a settlement in Suva who collapsed at home before she was rushed to the Colonial War Memorial Hospital.

There have now been 14 deaths due to COVID-19 in Fiji, 12 of which are from the current outbreak alone.

Fong said they have recorded eight COVID-19 positive patients that died from pre-existing illnesses while three deaths are currently under investigation.

India

An audit team set up by India's Supreme Court during the peak of the second wave of COVID-19 last month has reported that the government of the national capital had sought medical oxygen several times what was actually needed.

The sub-group's interim report submitted to the court said that the Delhi government's claim of 1,140 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) for the use in locally-based 183 hospitals was several times its calculated consumption.

India's COVID-19 tally rose to 30,134,445 on Friday, as 51,667 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours.

The death toll swelled to 393,310 as 1,321 deaths were recorded since Thursday morning.

Officials in New Delhi rejoiced earlier this week when India hit a single-day record by administering more than 8 million COVID-19 vaccinations.

But even this unprecedented pace may not be fast enough for a country just emerging from a devastating second wave to head off a third one, experts say. They also question whether this week’s push averaging about 4.6 million doses a day, up from about 3 million for most of the past month, can be sustained.

Despite halting all exports in April and benefiting from a huge vaccine producing industry, India has covered only 4 percent of its vast population, putting it far behind most of the West and China, which is deploying about 20 million doses a day. At this rate, some scientists say a third wave could arrive within months, driving fears the country may see a repeat of the recent nightmare of oxygen shortages and overwhelmed hospitals.

“I don’t think the recent spurt can be maintained, given what we know of the supply situation,” said Gautam Menon, a professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University, who also works on modeling outbreaks. “The single-day spike seems to have been the result of a concerted effort by some states, who may have stockpiled doses for this purpose. We would need to get to about 10 million doses per day to ensure that a future wave is less potent.”

India’s challenges in accelerating its inoculation drive are considerable. The fewer than 100 million doses per month being currently pumped out of two local manufacturers are struggling to cover its nearly 1.4 billion people. There is also considerable hesitancy to overcome and logistical hurdles to reaching much of the countryside, where more than two-thirds of Indians live.

Indonesia

Indonesia is shifting medical emergency units in Jakarta to tents outside hospitals to create more room for COVID-19 beds, the health minister said, as authorities scramble to boost hospital capacity amid a spike in coronavirus cases.

The world's fourth most populous nation reported that overall coronavirus cases topped 2 million this week, while Thursday's 20,574 rise in infections was the biggest since the start of the pandemic.

The virus surge has piled pressure on a fragile healthcare system, with hospitals in some cities nearing full capacity, while hundreds of healthcare workers have tested positive for the respiratory disease and at least 10 who were fully vaccinated have died.

Amid a worsening virus wave, Indonesia is letting all adults get vaccinated and using bars, schools and places of worship as vaccination posts, while scrapping the requirement for people to prove they live in the cities and provinces where they’re getting their shots. President Joko Widodo has set a goal of 1 million doses a day starting in July, from about 700,000 currently.

With COVID-19 bed occupancy exceeding 90 percent, Jakarta is converting hospitals to focus on the pandemic while turning away those with light symptoms. Emergency response units in the city will be turned into isolation rooms for patients with lighter symptoms, while urgent care will be moved to tents outside the hospitals. On Wednesday, the capital recorded its highest demand for burial services since the pandemic began.

Indonesia has sufficient oxygen supplies for COVID-19 patients, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said on Friday, responding to concerns about pressure on supplies due to a surge in coronavirus infections in the country.

Out of Indonesia's total oxygen production capacity, only a quarter was being used to produce oxygen for medical purposes and producers were "committed" to convert production capacity to support medical needs, the minister told a virtual briefing.

A health worker administers a dose of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine during a mass vaccination at a housing area in Surabaya, Indonesia, on June 24, 2021. (JUNI KRISWANTO / AFP)

Iran

In an event televised by the state TV on Friday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was inoculated with Iran's domestically developed vaccine against COVID-19.

The Iranian leader received a dose of the COVIran Barakat vaccine, which was approved for emergency use by the Iranian health ministry on June 13.

"I did not want to use non-Iranian vaccines, so I said I would wait for the Iranian vaccine," Khamenei stated.

He also expressed his gratitude toward the people who have worked to develop the vaccine, which is manufactured by the Barakat Foundation, an affiliate of Iran's Headquarters for the Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order (HEIKO).

Israel

Israel told its citizens on Friday they must again wear masks indoors, 10 days after being allowed to ditch them, amid a sustained surge in coronavirus infections attributed to the highly contagious Delta variant.

The mask requirement had been one of only a few social curbs remaining as Israel's rapid vaccination drive kept cases down.

But infections more than quadrupled this week to 138 after outbreaks attributed to the Delta variant at two schools, prompting officials to tighten some restrictions again and urge parents to have children between 12 and 15 vaccinated.

The health ministry reimposed the mask requirement for all indoor settings except the home, and said it was also recommending masks be worn at large outdoor gatherings, specifically mentioning gay pride events taking place around Israel this weekend.

Kyrgyzstan 

Kyrgyzstan on Friday reported 875 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases to 118,981.

According to data of the Republican Headquarters for Combating COVID-19, 533 more recoveries were registered over the past day, taking the count to 107,391.

The pandemic has so far claimed 1,964 lives in Kyrgyzstan, up by six in the past 24 hours, said the headquarters.

Japan

Japan will provide 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine to each of Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia from July 1, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Friday. China's Taiwan and Vietnam, which already have received some shots from Japan, will each receive an additional 1 million doses, Motegi said.

Malaysia

Malaysia expects some companies will receive approval to bring in private vaccines from China by August, according to Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin. Those who wish to expedite their vaccination may purchase jabs through this private market, said Khairy in a briefing Thursday.

Mongolia

Mongolia registered 2,271 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the nationwide tally to 104,900, the health ministry said Friday.

The latest confirmed cases over the past day were local infections, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, 12 more people died from the virus, pushing the national death toll to 512, it added.

In this April 19, 2021 photo, a traveler arrives on the first flight from Sydney, in Wellington. (MARTY MELVILLE / AFP)

New Zealand

The pause on quarantine free travel from Australia's New South Wales to New Zealand will continue for a further 12 days, New Zealand COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said on Friday.

There are now 36 recent community cases of COVID-19 in New South Wales, including four not yet linked to the existing outbreak that are urgently being investigated by Australian health officials.

This decision follows a further public health assessment in which officials consider a range of factors, whether any new cases are identified, the results from COVID-19 testing of any contacts identified and from the wider Sydney community, Hipkins said in a statement.

The government strongly believes a cautious approach is the best course of action while these investigations continue, he said.

Pakistan

Pakistan recorded 1,052 new COVID-19 cases over the last 24 hours, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said Friday.

The NCOC, the department leading Pakistan's campaign against the pandemic, said that the country's number of overall cases climbed to 952,907, adding that there have been 897,834 people who recovered from COVID-19 so far.

According to the NCOC, a total of 44 people also lost their lives to the disease over the last 24 hours, raising the overall death toll to 22,152.

South Korea

South Korea reported 634 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Thursday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 153,789.

Thirty-two cases were imported, lifting the combined figure to 9,717.

One more death was confirmed, leaving the death toll at 2,009. The total fatality rate stood at 1.31 percent.Workers clean beds inside a ward of a field hospital for Covid-19 coronavirus patients at a park in Manila on June 24, 2021. (MARIA TAN / AFP)

The Philippines

The World Bank on Friday approved a US$400 million loan to support reforms that will assist the Philippine government in achieving a resilient financial sector and help ensure a more inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bank said the Philippines First Financial Sector Reform Development Policy Financing loan is the first of two programs supporting three reform areas, including strengthening financial sector stability, integrity, and resilience.

The loan will also expand financial inclusion for individuals and firms and promote disaster risk finance that protects national budgets and businesses and the lives and livelihoods of families from the impacts of disasters, the bank added.

"The health crisis, the economic impact of containment measures, and the global slowdown have increased the urgency for reforms, not only to ensure financial sector stability or financial inclusion, but also to support economic recovery and minimize the impact of future shocks particularly on poor and vulnerable segments of the population," Ndiame Diop, World Bank Country Director for Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand, said in a statement.

In addition to providing timely financial resources to support government financing needs, Diop said the financial sector reforms supported under this loan "will help meet the immediate needs of individuals and micro, small and medium enterprises under strain."

The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported Friday 6,812 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,385,053.

The death toll climbed to 24,152 after 116 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said.

ALSO READ: India orders unapproved virus shots as it reels from 2nd wave

UAE

The capital of the United Arab Emirates said it isn’t offering coronavirus vaccines to tourists. The Abu Dhabi media office said in a tweet the emirate is offering free vaccines only to those with valid or expired residency visas, excluding holders of tourist or visitor visas.

Vietnam

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh aims to have a domestic COVID-19 vaccine produced by June 2022 at the latest as the government ramps up its nationwide vaccination program, according to a post on the government website.

The health ministry is helping local companies in talks with Russia about a technology transfer to help Vietnam produce the Sputnik V vaccine, the post said. The World Health Organization has pledged to send experts to Vietnam to aid with vaccine production, according to a separate post on the government website citing WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.