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 In Australia's biggest city of Sydney, 2 million residents, or
roughly 40% of its population, face curfew https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/sydney-covid-19-lockdown-be-extended-until-sept-end-2021-08-20
from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. next week, along with limits on exercise.
A lockdown of the entire city, now in its eighth week, was also
extended until the end of September, with residents told to wear
masks outdoors, except for exercise.
"I asked health and police to work together, to give me a final list
of what we can throw at this, to leave no shadow of a doubt as to
how serious we are," Gladys Berejiklian, the premier of Sydney's
home state of New South Wales, told reporters.
The state, which is Australia's most populous, reported 644 new
infections on Friday, while southeastern Victoria state, home to
Melbourne, recorded 55, as authorities there warned of a risk the
outbreak could slip out of control.
In neighbouring New Zealand, an outbreak that began this week
widened to the capital, Wellington, from the biggest city of
Auckland, prompting Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to extend a
nationwide lockdown https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/new-zealand-delta-outbreak-widens-3-cases-wellington-2021-08-20
until Tuesday.
Though Friday's 11 new infections are relatively few, Ardern's
critics question if she can repeat last year's feat of almost
stamping out COVID-19, given the highly contagious nature of the
Delta variant.
Vietnam imposed its toughest order yet, barring residents of the
business hub of Ho Chi Minh City from leaving their homes https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/vietnams-biggest-city-issues-stay-home-order-covid-19-deaths-soar-2021-08-20
from Monday, although further details have yet to be announced.
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 "Each home, company, factory
should be an anti-virus fort," said Pham Duc Hai,
deputy head of the coronavirus authority in
Vietnam's biggest city, adding that people were
being asked not to go outdoors.
Like Australia and New Zealand, Vietnam was once
lauded for success in containing the virus, but
is finding earlier measures were insufficient.
It has more than 312,000 infections and 7,150 deaths, up from a May
1 figure of less than 3,000 cases and 35 deaths.
Japan plans to roughly triple daily COVID-19 tests https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-ramp-up-covid-19-tests-it-battles-worst-wave-infections-2021-08-20
to 320,000, an acknowledgement that its main containment strategy of
breaking up clusters of infections was no longer working in big
cities like Tokyo, the capital.
The move comes after new daily cases exceeded 25,000 on Thursday for
the first time.
South Korea extended for two weeks social distancing curbs that
include a ban on gatherings of more than two people after 6 p.m.
Thailand, which had also managed to hold down infection numbers
until the Delta variant hit, said its cases had passed the 1-million
mark on Friday.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Edwina Gibbs; Editing by
Clarence Fernandez)
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