* The Indonesian Health Ministry reported on Wednesday that the coronavirus cases across the country rose by 47,791 within the past 24 hours to 3,287,727 with the death toll adding by 1,824 to 88,659.
* Thailand on Wednesday reported 16,533 new COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day increase since the pandemic began, as the country struggled to contain its worst-ever wave of the outbreak.
* Cambodia on Wednesday logged 766 new COVID-19 infections including 307 imported cases, pushing the national total caseload to 75,152, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said in a statement.
* Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, reported 47 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one asymptomatic infection on Tuesday, local authorities said Wednesday. All the cases were categorized as locally transmitted, said the municipal health commission of Nanjing.
* India's COVID-19 tally rose to 31,484,605 on Wednesday with 43,654 newly-registered cases during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
* Cuba reported on Tuesday 7,903 new COVID-19 infections and 75 more deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 349,055 cases and 2,492 deaths, according to the Ministry of Public Health's daily report.
* Britain on Tuesday reported its highest number of deaths and people in hospital with the coronavirus since March, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson urging caution despite a week of lower reported numbers of infection.
* More than 1.58 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in China by Tuesday, the National Health Commission said Wednesday.
* Americans fully vaccinated against COVID-19 should go back to wearing masks in indoor public places in regions where the coronavirus is spreading rapidly, US health authorities said.
* The Indian government expects to have around 150 million vaccine doses in August, Vinod Kumar Paul, who heads a federal government panel on vaccines, told a news conference.
* Pfizer Inc on Wednesday raised its forecast for sales of the COVID-19 vaccine that it developed with Germany's BioNTech to US$33.5 billion from US$26 billion, the second increase this year in the face of a global scramble for the shots.
* Moderna said its vaccine manufacturing partners outside the United States are facing delays due to laboratory testing operations that have occurred in the past few days.
* Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu pledged in Dushanbe on Wednesday to safeguard regional peace, security and stability.
* Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf visited Syria for talks with its senior officials on expanding economic cooperation between the two countries, Tasnim News Agency reported Wednesday.
* Jordan's Interior Minister Mazen Faraya on Tuesday stressed the necessity for reoperating Jaber border crossing with Syria at full capacity during a phone call with his Syrian counterpart Mohammed Al Rahmoun.
* Ireland became the latest European Union member state to commit to offering COVID-19 vaccines to children aged 12-15 as it opened its strongly subscribed programme to 16 and 17-year olds on Tuesday.
* The Australian city of Sydney extended a lockdown by four weeks after an already protracted stay-at-home order failed to douse a COVID-19 outbreak.
* Chile recorded on Tuesday 753 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, the lowest daily number since April 2020, Health Minister Enrique Paris said. With this figure, the South American country's total caseload reached 1,611,090, and 32 more deaths were recorded in the last day, bringing the death toll to 35,151.
* Israel is considering giving a third shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to its elderly population even before FDA approval to help fend off the Delta variant.
* Turkish authorities have intercepted a boat carrying more than 200 Afghan migrants in the Aegean sea heading for Europe, Turkey's coastguard and the International Organization for Migration said on Wednesday.
* Norway postponed for a second time on Wednesday a planned final step in the reopening of its economy from pandemic lockdown due to the continued spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19, the government said.
* The number of new COVID-19 cases in Tokyo reached 3,177 for the first time in a single day, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced Wednesday.
* People not immunized or having received only one dose of vaccine constitute 98 percent of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Portugal, the Portuguese General Directorate of Health (DGS) reported on Tuesday.
* Turkey on Tuesday registered 19,761 new COVID-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 5,638,178, according to its health ministry. The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 51 to 51,048, while 7,108 more people recovered in the last 24 hours.
* Israel's defense budget will rise to ILS58 billion (US$17.8 billion) in 2022, according to a statement released by the state's Ministry of Finance on Wednesday. This is an increase of about half a billion shekels from the budgets of ILS57.5 billion in 2020 and in 2021.
