Delta variant rampant in Asia; Tokyo, Thailand, Malaysia post record COVID infections

The Olympics host city Tokyo, as well as Thailand and Malaysia, announced record COVID-19 infections on Saturday, mostly driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant of the disease.

People queue at the Central Vaccination Center as Thailand begins offering first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to at-risk groups amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Bangkok, Thailand, July 26, 2021. (Photo: Reuters)
People queue at the Central Vaccination Center as Thailand begins offering first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to at-risk groups amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Bangkok, Thailand, July 26, 2021. (Photo: Reuters)

Cases surged in Sydney as well, where police cordoned off the central business district to prevent a protest against a strict lockdown that will last until the end of August.

Police in Sydney closed train stations, banned taxis from dropping passengers off downtown and deployed 1,000 officers to set up checkpoints and to disperse groups.

The government of New South Wales reported 210 new infections in Sydney and surrounding areas from the Delta variant outbreak.

Tokyo's metropolitan government announced a record number of 4,058 infections in the past 24 hours. Olympics organisers reported 21 new COVID-19 cases related to the Games, bringing the total to 241 since July 1.

A day earlier Japan extended its state of emergency for Tokyo to the end of August and expanded it to three prefectures near Tokyo and to the western prefecture of Osaka.

Malaysia, one of the hotspots of the disease, reported 17,786 coronavirus cases on Saturday, a record high.

Thailand also reported a daily record high of 18,912 new coronavirus infections, bringing its total cases to 597,287. The country also reported 178 new deaths, also a daily record, taking total fatalities to 4,857.

The government said the Delta variant accounted for more than 60% of the cases in the country and 80% of the cases in Bangkok.

The Delta variant is not necessarily more lethal than other variants, but much more transmissible, Supakit Sirilak, the director-general of Thailand's Department of Medical Sciences, told Reuters.

China is battling an outbreak of the Delta variant in the eastern city of Nanjing which has been traced to airport workers who cleaned a plane which had arrived from Russia.

Nanjing has reported 190 locally transmitted cases of the Delta variant since July 20, while there has been a total of 262 cases across the country, figures released on Saturday showed.

Vietnam, which is grappling with its worst COVID-19 outbreak, on Saturday also announced tougher measures, saying from Monday it would impose strict curbs on movement in 19 cities and provinces throughout the southern part of the country for another two weeks.

COVID-19 infections have increased by 80% over the past four weeks in most regions of the world, WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday.

"Hard-won gains are in jeopardy or being lost, and health systems in many countries are being overwhelmed," Tedros told a news conference.

The Delta variant, first detected in India, is as contagious as chickenpox and far more contagious than the common cold or flu, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said in an internal document reported this week.

It can be passed on even by vaccinated people and may cause more serious disease than earlier coronavirus strains, the CDC document said.

Reuters