South Australia Lockdown, Indonesia Lockdown extension, 22 new cases in China, Hong Kong increase Jabs

A third state, South Australia, has gone on its first week-long day closing order Wednesday, and reported a new case, Channel News Asia reported.

In Indonesia, President Joko Widodo extended the country’s pandemic containment to the weekend, saying restrictions would be lifted gradually starting Monday if the daily infection rate continued to decline.

“If this trend continues, then the government will gradually reopening the economy July 26”, Nikkei Asia quoted the president as saying.

In Thailand, there have been a record 13,001 new cases and 108 more deaths in the past 24 hours, health officials said on Wednesday morning.

Thailand ranks 51st in the world with a cumulative number of cases of 439,477, The Bangkok Post reported.

In China, the government reported 22 new cases on the mainland on July 20 compared with 65 a day earlier, authorities said on Wednesday.

According to Reuters, China’s cumulative total of cases has now reached 92,363, with the death toll unchanged at 4,635, according to Reuters.

In Hong Kong, more than a quarter of patients in the city have been vaccinated this month, most of them imported cases, the South China Morning Post reported.

But the Hong Kong Hospital Authority would not disclose the status of patients who tested positive.

In the Philippines, more stringent measures are likely to be reintroduced as the Delta variant continues to pose a threat to the country, officials said.

President Rodrigo Duterte says that stricter restrictions may be needed to prevent the Delta variant from spreading, which he says is “caused a serious alarm and concerns,” the Inquirer News said.

In India, the government reported its highest death toll in a month on Wednesday, near 4,000.

Officials say India’s number of cases is 31.21 million, with a death toll of 418,481.

In Vietnam, the country’s number of new virus infections rose to 61,888 on Wednesday morning with 2,774 new infections in 23 provinces.

More than 4.33 million people have been vaccinated in Vietnam but only 317,671 people have received two doses, VNExpress said.

In South Korea, officials reported a daily record of 1,784 cases for Tuesday, as the country struggles to contain a surge of outbreaks linked to the Delta variant.

Health authorities said the new distancing rules are expected to be announced on Sunday.

Worldwide, there are 191 million won cases and 4.11 million deaths.

© 2021 Business Times Copyright Registered. Do not copy without permission.