Overview: Australia, Asia, UK

What you need to know about the coronavirus right now Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now: Reuters Staff U.S.

The leader of Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) state on Wednesday ordered a week-long extension of Sydney’s COVID-19 lockdown, warning new cases are bound to rise as the country’s biggest city grapples with the highly infectious Delta variant. Total infections have topped 350 since the first case, a limousine driver who transported overseas airline crew, was detected three weeks ago in the beachside suburb of Bondi.

While other developed nations have pressed ahead with vaccinating a large portion of their population, fewer than 10% of Australians have been fully vaccinated so far.

South Korea considers reimposing restrictions as cases surge

South Korea reported its second highest number of daily new COVID-19 cases ever on Wednesday, just days after it began easing social distancing restrictions in some parts of the country, buoyed by an accelerated vaccine rollout.   READ MORE  ...

Singapore has excluded those who received Sinovac Biotech’s shots from its national COVID-19 vaccination count, according to the city-state’s health ministry. Just over 17,000 people in Singapore have received one dose of CoronaVac as of July 3. These records will be captured in a national immunisation registry.

Sinovac’s CoronaVac shot is not part of Singapore’s national vaccination programme and the city-state has said it is still awaiting critical data from the company. “COVID-19 vaccines that are not part of our national vaccination programme may not have documented sufficient data on their protection against COVID-19 infection, especially against the Delta variant that is currently circulating,” the health ministry said last week.

Mass-testing reduced Liverpool cases by a fifth, study finds

A mass rapid-testing scheme reduced COVID-19 cases in the English city of Liverpool by more than a fifth, researchers said on Wednesday, arguing it was an effective public health intervention despite concerns over accuracy of the devices. The community testing pilot scheme launched in November, and offered everyone in the city tests whether or not they had symptoms, in an attempt to find a new way to use testing to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

The study, led by the University of Liverpool with government backing, concluded that community testing led to an 18% increase in case detection and a 21% reduction in cases compared with other areas up to mid-December.

ALSO SEE: Quarantine to end for vaccinated Britons arriving from amber list nations-media

ALSO: Australia to donate oxygen-equipment, AstraZeneca vaccine to Indonesia

AND: Factbox: The key moments in how Australia's COVID-19 success soured --Reuters