Asian Countries Battling Second Wave of Coronavirus Infections

SYDNEY, KOMPAS.com – Asian countries are actively dealing with the second wave of coronavirus infections and governments are working to contain the Covid-19 virus.

Recently, Australia recorded a record daily rise in Covid-19 cases while Vietnam has taken the drastic step of locking down the city of Danang.

Mainland China is currently battling the most aggressive re-emergence of the Covid-19 virus in months including 57 new local Covid-19 cases on Sunday.

The figure is the highest level since early March and has been linked to fresh infections in the far western region of Xinjiang.

The northeastern province of Liaoning reported a fifth straight day of active Covid-19 virus transmission.

Jilin Province followed suit with two new cases that are also its first cases since late May.

Local media reported that on Monday, Hong Kong is expected to tighten restrictions including banning dining at restaurants as well as making wearing face masks mandatory outdoors.

The measures, which are expected to take effect from Wednesday, would be the first time the city has completely banned dining in restaurants.

Australian authorities warned a six-week lockdown in parts of the southeastern Victoria state may last longer after the country registered its highest daily increase in infections.

Most of Australia is effectively virus-free but flare-ups in the two most populous southeastern states have authorities scrambling to prevent a wider national outbreak.

"The tragedy of Covid-19 is that we know, with the number of new infections that we have seen today, that there will be many further deaths in the days ahead," Australia's Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd told reporters.

Read also: Mitigating Coronavirus Pandemic Will Cost Australia $131 Billion in 2020

In Japan, the government said it would urge business leaders to ramp up anti-virus measures such as staggered shifts, and aimed to see rates of telecommuting achieved during an earlier state of emergency.

"At one point, commuter numbers were down by 70 to 80 percent, but now it's only about 30 percent," Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said late on Sunday.

"We really don't want to backtrack on this, so we have to explore new ways of working and keep telecommuting high," continued Yasutoshi.