Asia's COVID deaths surpass 1 million

Asia's COVID deaths surpass 1 million - Reuters tally Asia passed the grim milestone of 1 million coronavirus-linked deaths on Friday, a Reuters tally showed, as a spike in Omicron variant infections spreads across the region after starting in nations such as Japan and South Korea. Aparupa Mazumder,Lasya Priya M Reuters

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The death toll in Asia, home to more than half the world's population, reached 1,000,045, contributing 16% of global deaths related to COVID-19, the tally showed.

New cases remain at record or near-record levels in Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, but have fallen sharply from their peaks in India, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Even mainland China, which has adopted a "dynamic zero" strategy of strict measures to curb infections, has been severely tested by fast-spreading Omicron.

Deaths have soared to records in the East Asian countries of Japan and South Korea and the financial hub of Hong Kong.

COVID-19 deaths in Hong Kong have risen to an average of more than 200 a day in the last week, up from one or two earlier, as the outbreak tears through hundreds of nursing homes, hitting many of the city's unvaccinated elderly. read more  ...

China, Singapore and South Korea have vaccinated more than 85% of their populations with two doses, but less than 40% of the population in Myanmar, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan is fully vaccinated, a Reuters analysis of Our World in Data showed.

In the wider Asian region, roughly 65% of the population have received two vaccine doses. ...