Singapore (Reuters) – India, South Korea and Thailand faced increasing coronavirus infections on Thursday, undermining tentative hopes that Asia would recover from the worst pandemic as safety concerns threatened to delay vaccination trips.
India reported a record 126,789 new cases, the third day of this week the numbers have risen to over 100,000, with authorities blaming the displacement and reluctance to wear masks when shops and offices reopen.
More contagious variants of the virus may have played a role in India’s rise, according to some epidemiologists, finding hundreds of cases of variants first discovered in Britain, South Africa and Brazil.
The alarming numbers have resulted in New Zealand imposing a temporary ban on anyone coming from India for about two weeks, even for the first time New Zealand citizens have access to their homes.
“We are temporarily suspending entry to New Zealand for travelers from India,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a news conference in Auckland.
New Zealand, which has virtually eradicated the virus within its borders, registered 23 new cases at its border on Thursday, 17 from India.
Two other countries that largely managed to keep the coronavirus under control during the first year of the pandemic also struggled with new waves, albeit smaller than India’s.
South Korea reported 700 new cases on Thursday, the highest daily figure since early January, and the prime minister warned that new rules of social distancing are likely to be needed.
Thailand, which is planning a cautious reopening of its tourism industry, reported a rise in new daily infections to 405 on Thursday, bringing the total number of infections to 30,310, with 95 dead.
In addition to Thai concerns, it has discovered 24 cases of a highly contagious virus variant first discovered in Britain, the first reported domestic transmission of the variant.
The number of cases is also on the rise in parts of Europe, but South America is the most troubling region in the world for infections, with cases increasing in nearly every country, the director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said Wednesday.
SHOTS SUSPENDED
The increasing cases in Asia are as concerns grow over the safety of one of the most prominent vaccines against the virus.
The European Medicines Agency said on Wednesday that it has found rare cases of blood clots in some adult recipients of AstraZeneca Plc’s COVID-19 vaccine, although it said the benefits of the vaccine still outweighed its risks.
Both South Korea and the Philippines have suspended use of the vaccine for people under 60 due to possible links with blood clots, while Australia and Taiwan said they would continue to use it.
Concerns about the vaccine could slow immunization drives in Asia, some of which are already dogged by delivery problems. The campaigns in most parts of Asia are lagging behind those in places like Great Britain and the United States.
Australia’s program to vaccinate its nearly 26 million people is more than 80% behind the original schedule.
Authorities there had promised to deliver at least 4 million first doses by the end of March, but were only able to deliver 670,000. The government blamed delivery problems from Europe.
As cases increase in India, vaccine centers in several parts of the country, including the hardest hit state of Maharashtra, are out of stock.
China, where the new coronavirus emerged in late 2019, is continuing its vaccination campaign and delivered approximately 3.68 million doses on Wednesday, bringing the total number of doses to 149.07 million, authorities said.
Japan’s vaccinations are far behind those in most major economies, with only one approved vaccine and about 1 million people having received a first dose since February, even as it struggles with new cases.
Infections in Tokyo increased by 545 cases on Thursday, adding to concerns about the Olympic and Paralympic Games, delayed from last year and now expected to end July.
The government tried to calm the fuss on social media, saying it did not want to prioritize vaccines for its Olympic athletes, and rejected a media report that it was considering this.
Japan does not insist that prospective athletes be vaccinated, but there will be regular testing while in Japan. There will be no foreign spectators and a decision has yet to be made on the domestic spectators.
Reporting by Reuters personnel; Written by Robert Birsel; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore