“Hospitals are full because of the case surge caused by mobility and loosening health protocol adherence, worsened also by the Delta variant,” said senior health ministry official Siti Nadia Tarmizi, when asked about the IFRC’s assessment.

The Delta variant was first identified in India and has been blamed for big spikes in infections in many countries. Indonesia is banking on mass vaccinations as a means of tackling the virus, but only 13.3 million of the 181.5 million targeted for inoculation have received the required two doses since January.

Indonesia’s health minister is leading a push for stricter controls as infections surge to unprecedented levels, sources familiar with government discussions have told Reuters.

Citing unnamed sources, The Straits Times newspaper on Tuesday reported the government in Jakarta will tighten restrictions starting on Wednesday, prohibiting restaurant dining and requiring negative polymerase chain reaction tests for domestic air travel.

India approves Moderna vaccine

The nation of 1.3 billion people was hit by a massive spike in coronavirus cases in April and May that pushed the healthcare system to breaking point.

Moderna’s shot is the fourth to be approved by New Delhi after Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield and Covaxin – which was developed by Indian firm Bharat Biotech – and Russia’s Sputnik V.

“I am pleased to inform that an application received from Moderna through an Indian partner of theirs, Cipla, has been granted EUA [Emergency Use Authorisation],” Vinod K. Paul, a member of government advisory body NITI Aayog, said at a health ministry briefing.

Paul added that the approval would pave the way for other foreign-made vaccines to be imported into India, with efforts to get Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson jabs ongoing.

A small number of Sputnik V shots were imported into India after the drug was approved in mid-April, but the majority are expected to be manufactured within the country, like Covishield and Covaxin.

India said two months ago that it would fast-track the approval of vaccines manufactured outside the country that have already been granted emergency use authorisation by major regulators such as the US Food and Drug Administration.

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The government has been under pressure to speed up its flagging inoculation drive by allowing the import of foreign-made shots such as mRNA vaccines Pfizer and Moderna.

“We should have as many vaccines and alternatives as possible,” said Dr Rakesh Mishra, the former director of research body the Centre for Cellular Molecular Biology, who welcomed the approval.

Meanwhile, five gang members in India wore full protective gear to cremate a man they had murdered, pretending he died from Covid-19, police said on Tuesday.

The victim was invited to a party by the men, whom he owed 4 million rupees (US$54,000), and suffocated, according to police.

The gang wore full PPE and cremated the body at a facility in the northern city of Agra, registering the dead man under a false name, local police chief Muniraj G. said.

“To avoid being caught... they wore PPE kit and used a body bag to pack and transport the body to the cremation ground,” Muniraj G. said on Twitter. “All the five accused have confessed to their crime.”

A tip-off from an informant led to the arrest of one of the men, according to a police statement.

10 million Australians under lockdown

About 10 million Australians will be in lockdown once the latest order comes into force from Tuesday evening.

“These are tough decisions,” Queensland state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said. “We are having lockdowns in major cities because the overseas arrivals are bringing the virus here.”

Residents of Perth in Australia’s west woke to a four-day snap lockdown on Tuesday morning, joining Sydney and Darwin residents, with the rules applying from midnight Monday into Tuesday and lasting a minimum of four days.

Just three positive cases have been diagnosed in Perth since the outbreak was detected but local health officials have long taken a highly cautious approach to any coronavirus clusters.

“We know the risk Covid presents and we know from around the world that the Delta strain is another new beast that we can’t take any chances with,” Western Australia state Premier Mark McGowan said in a late-night press conference Monday.

Under pressure over his government’s response, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced vaccines will become mandatory for care home and quarantine hotel workers, while the AstraZeneca jab will be available to people aged under 60 who sign an indemnity form.

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The conservative government has been criticised over a sluggish vaccine roll-out and failing to improve the leaky hotel quarantine system, while refusing to release data on how many Australians have been fully vaccinated.

Almost 7.4 million vaccine doses have been administered to date, with less than five per cent of adults reported to have received both jabs. Australia has recorded more than 30,000 cases and 910 deaths in a population of about 25 million since the pandemic began.

The largest current outbreak is in Sydney, where 130 people have tested positive for Covid-19 since a driver for an international flight crew was diagnosed in mid-June, with the city’s residents now under stay-at-home orders for two weeks.

A small cluster linked to an outback gold mine sent Darwin into lockdown after exposure sites were found for the first time in the city, which is home to a large Indigenous population feared to be more vulnerable to Covid-19.

In all locked-down areas, people are generally required to stay at home except for essential work, exercise, to buy groceries or for medical reasons.

Pakistanis storm vaccination centre in hunt for non-China jabs

“There was a big crowd and they broke down these glass doors, because they were worried the vaccine would run out,” said witness Muhammad Ismail, 31. He pointed out the shattered remnants of the vaccination centre’s entrance, where a huge crowd swarmed around a handful of medical staff screening people for the shots.

Other witnesses gave similar accounts, but asked not to be named. They estimated the size of the crowd at hundreds.

“The Saudis say they don’t want the Chinese vaccine, they want these other ones,” said Ismail, who has a job in a restaurant in Saudi Arabia. “Otherwise they keep you in quarantine, and that costs around 5,000 riyal (US$1,330). My monthly wages are 1,800 riyal, so how can I afford that?”

He and four relatives travelled to Islamabad hoping to get the AstraZeneca vaccine and finally return to their jobs. They have been stuck in Pakistan for the last 9 months after Saudi Arabia told foreign workers to leave late last year.

Pakistan also has around 100,000 doses of Pfizer, meant for immunocompromised people, and the government has said it plans to purchase 13 million more doses by the end of the year.

Philippines extends lockdown until mid-July

Infections in the capital region, home to at least 13 million people, have dropped since peaking in April, but some provinces are battling spikes as the country scrambles to distribute and administer vaccines.

Entertainment venues, amusement parks, and contacts sports are prohibited in the capital region and nearby provinces, while restaurants, gyms and indoor tourist attractions are allowed to operate at up to 40 per cent capacity. But 21 cities and provinces outside the capital remain under tighter measures to contain the virus.

A ban was extended on inbound travel from Oman, the United Arab Emirates and most countries in South Asia, to ward off highly contagious Covid-19 variants.

Local officials have two days to appeal to the president over the restrictions, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.

The Philippines has fully vaccinated only 2.5 million people, or just 3.6 per cent of the 70 million targeted for immunisation this year.

It has received 17.5 million vaccine doses, mostly those of Sinovac, among 40 to 55 million doses of various brands on order for June to September.

In a weekly national address, Duterte told local officials to prepare cold storage facilities for the vaccines.

With more than 1.4 million cases and 24,456 deaths, the Philippines has among the most coronavirus deaths and infections in Asia.

Reporting by Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press