* The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported on Monday 6,664 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,555,396. The death toll climbed to 27,247 after 23 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH added.
* Indonesia is expecting to receive 45 million more doses of COVID-19 vaccines in August, health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told a virtual news conference on Monday.
* Singapore is looking to allow quarantine-free travel for those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 from September, when 80% of the city-state's population should be inoculated, the government said on Monday.
* The Chinese mainland on Sunday reported 40 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, including 39 in Jiangsu and one in Liaoning, the National Health Commission said in its daily report on Monday. Also reported were 36 new imported cases, of which 18 were reported in Yunnan, eight in Guangdong, five in Fujian, two each in Inner Mongolia and Henan, and one in Beijing. No new suspected cases or deaths related to COVID-19 were reported Sunday.
* Japan on Monday started accepting applications for so-called vaccine passports for people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to travel internationally, local media reported.
* Top infectious disease official Anthony Fauci has said Americans who are immune-compromised may end up needing vaccine booster shots.
* Australia's most populous state reported a rise in new cases despite a weeks-long stay-at-home order, while police vowed to crack down on any repeat of a wild anti-lockdown protest at the weekend.
* Forty million people in France have now received at least the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, French President Emmanuel Macron said in a Tweet on Monday.
* Russia reported 23,239 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, including 2,629 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 6,149,780. The government coronavirus task force said 727 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 154,601.
* Britain is expected to remove France from its "amber" category of coronavirus risk countries and could drop quarantine for travellers from France as soon as next week, The Times reported.
* Republic of Korea has kicked off vaccinations for people ages 55-59 to speed up its inoculation campaign.
* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday called for leadership of the Group of 20 (G20) on global climate action.
* The death toll from torrential rain in central China's Henan Province has risen to 69, as of noon on Monday, the information office of the Henan provincial government said at a press conference.
* A typhoon moving northward from the Pacific may make landfall Tuesday on Japan's main island including Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said Monday.
* South Africa has lifted restrictions on the sale of alcohol on weekdays and the movement of people between provinces as President Cyril Ramaphosa said a third wave may have peaked.
* AstraZeneca Plc is "scouring" its global supply chain to try and boost vaccine supplies to Thailand and Southeast Asia.
* London's Heathrow Airport urged Britain to open up travel to vaccinated passengers after its recovery fell behind hubs elsewhere in Europe, pushing its cumulative pandemic losses to US$4 billion.
* Ghana hopes to receive over 18 million doses of vaccines before October as it struggles to contain a third wave of infections.
* Algeria will reimpose restrictions on gatherings to cope with a rapid spread of the more infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus.
