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Sri Lanka issues gazette on new COVID-19 precautions, Australian quarantine capacity expanded
HONG KONG, Oct 16, 2020 (BSS/XINHUA) – Sri Lanka has issued a gazette on new COVID-19 precautions, local media reported Friday, as the quarantine capacity in Australia was expanded to repatriate citizens stranded overseas.
Sri Lanka’s Health Minister, Pavithra Wanniarachchi has signed a special gazette notification on the implementation of COVID-19 precautions, including wearing face masks, maintaining social distance and hand hygiene as the country has been facing a rise in new COVID-19 cases in recent weeks.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced a plan to repatriate tens of thousands of citizens stranded overseas amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Under the plan announced afternoon the Howard Springs facility southeast of Darwin in the Northern Territory (NT) will be used to quarantine 5,000 travellers returning from Britain, India and South Africa over the next five to six months.
India’s COVID-19 tally reached 7,370,468 and death toll 112,161, as 63,371 new cases and 895 deaths were reported over the past 24 hours across the country, said the latest data released by the federal health ministry.
Malaysia reported 629 new COVID-19 infections, the health ministry said, bringing the national total to 18,758. Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press briefing that two of the new cases are imported and 627 are local transmissions.
Japan confirmed 613 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the nation’s cumulative total to 92,138 cases, not including those related to a ship that was quarantined near Tokyo earlier in the year.
Afghanistan reported 62 new COVID-19 cases within the past 24 hours, bringing the total tally to 40,088, the country’s Ministry of Public Health said.
“Within the past 24 hours, 425 suspected cases were tested, out of which 62 cases were tested positive in 10 provinces of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces,” the ministry said in a statement.
The confirmed COVID-19 cases in Indonesia increased by 4,301 in the past 24 hours to 353,461 with 12,347 deaths, the Health Ministry said.
According to the ministry, 79 more deaths from the coronavirus pandemic were recorded during the same period, and 3,883 more people were discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recoveries to 277,544.
Laos’ National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control said it has been monitoring 2,621 people across the country over COVID-19 concerns.
The Philippines reported 3,139 new daily cases of the COVID-19, pushing the total number of the confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 351,750.
South Korea reported 47 more cases of the COVID-19 compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 25,035.
The daily caseload fell below 100 after recording 110 in the previous day, but the double-digit expansion continued owing to small cluster infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province.
New Zealand reported four new imported cases of COVID-19 from managed isolation.
There is one suspected historical case currently being investigated, which is not included in Friday’s reporting numbers, according to the Ministry of Health.
BSS/XINHUA/SSS/2011 hrs