Case numbers in Australia’s most populous city could continue rising after a weekend of protests that defied restrictions on crowd sizes, authorities said, and have the potential to become a superspreader event.

Thousands of anti-lockdown protesters on Saturday flooded the country’s largest cities, some clashing with police. Over 50 people have been charged for defying public health orders, with more charges expected with police receiving over thousands of tip-offs from members of the public. Images and videos of the protest circulated on social media, including one image of a man apparently punching a police horse in the head.

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State police commissioner Mick Fuller said the calls to police were “an amazing outcry by the community, not just in terms of their disgust at the protest but at the way the police were treated”. Police knew of plans for a repeat protest and similar behaviour “won’t be tolerated again”, he added.

Meanwhile, the neighbouring state of Victoria recorded just 11 new cases in the past 24 hours, none of which were exposed to the community while infectious. Victoria, which has been under tighter restrictions than New South Wales, looks set to exit lockdown on Tuesday.

South Australia said it was on track to exit its snap one-week lockdown on Wednesday, after reporting one new local case, also in quarantine through their infectious period.

With about 32,900 cases and 918 deaths, Australia has kept its coronavirus numbers relatively low although the Delta strain and low vaccination numbers among developed economies have worried residents.

Record cases in Southeast Asia

Thailand had 15,376 new coronavirus cases, a daily record for a second consecutive day in the nation of more than 66 million.

In Malaysia, which has one of Southeast Asia’s highest per capita infection rates, with 17,045 new cases on Sunday, thousands of Malaysian contract doctors staged a walkout over the terms of their employment, though they pledged patients would not be affected by the protest.

The doctors, who want permanent postings, as well as better pay and benefits, said an offer by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to extend their contracts did not go far enough.

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Indonesia, the region’s most populous country, with more than 270 million people, has Southeast Asia’s biggest caseload. It has reported more than 3.1 million infections and 83,000 deaths. Last week it reported record-high deaths on four separate days, the last of which was 1,566 fatalities on Friday, bringing cumulative deaths to more than 83,000.

After successfully containing the virus for much of the pandemic, Vietnam has been facing a renewed outbreak, with southern business hub Ho Chi Minh City and surrounding provinces accounting for most new infections. The health ministry reported 7,531 infections on Sunday, down from Saturday’s record daily increase of 7,968.

Myanmar has also seen a surge in infections since June and on Sunday reported 355 deaths, a record, while daily cases topped 6,000 on Thursday last week.

In the Philippines, authorities have been scrambling to curb the spread of the Delta variant. Infections have recently started to rise and authorities this week suspended travel from Malaysia and Thailand, as well as tightened restrictions in the Manila area.

Indonesia’s relaxing of curbs driven by economics

As the country grapples with the worst coronavirus outbreak in Asia, President Joko Widodo announced on Sunday that while overall curbs in place since July would be extended for a week, some measures would be eased.

Businesses, including salons, garages, traditional markets and restaurants with outdoor areas will now be allowed to conditionally reopen, while malls will be permitted to operate at 25 per cent capacity outside designated higher-risk “red zones”.

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“The decision doesn’t seem to be related to the pandemic, but to economics,” said Pandu Riono, an epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia, urging people to maintain health protocols.

Hospitals have been filled with patients in the past month, particularly on the densely populated island of Java and in Bali, but the president on Sunday said infections and hospital occupancy had declined, without specifying by how much.

The move to ease some curbs comes as the government has faced pressure from business groups to act to avoid mass lay-offs, and with several relatively small-scale street demonstrations last week.

South Korea expands vaccination process

The roll-out of Covid-19 vaccinations for people in their upper 50s had sputtered to a week-long halt this month after a record high number of new cases sparked a rush for shots, exhausting available supplies and crashing an official reservation website.

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South Korea has prioritised immunising the elderly, the vulnerable and frontline health care workers. It has inoculated 33 per cent of its 52 million population with at least one dose, while 13 per cent have been fully inoculated.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 1,318 new coronavirus cases for Sunday. Total infections in the country stand at 190,166, with 2,077 deaths.

Japan accepts applications for ‘vaccine passports’

So far, Italy, Austria, Turkey, Bulgaria and Poland have agreed to ease Covid-19 quarantine rules for holders of the Japanese certificates, while South Korea will also accept them as one of the documents needed in exempting holders from quarantine requirements, according to the Japanese government.

Estonia has also agreed to accept the certificate, although it currently does not impose quarantine regardless of whether the person has been vaccinated or not. The Japanese government is now in talks with other countries to expand the use of its vaccine passports.

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But the top government spokesman also urged people to refrain from applying for the certificate unless they have plans to travel abroad to prevent a flood of applications.

The certificates will be official records issued free of charge by local municipalities showing a person has been fully inoculated against Covid-19, with information such as name, passport number and date of vaccination also included. The application form and the certificate are currently restricted to paper, but the Japanese government is seeking to eventually introduce digital application and issuance.

Night curfew in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City

After successfully containing limited coronavirus outbreaks last year, the country is now recording increasing infections and deaths fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant.

Hardest-hit are the northern industrial centres and Ho Chi Minh City in the south, which has registered more than 62,000 infections since April – making up the bulk of Vietnam’s 101,000 cases.

Authorities have restricted movement in the once-bustling economic hub for more than two months, and imposed a lockdown in early July. Residents are allowed to leave home only for medical emergencies and food.

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But beginning on Monday, an additional, strict stay-at-home order will be in effect from 6pm to 6am local time – though authorities refused to use the word “curfew”. No end date was announced for the measure.

“Local law enforcement will need to step up patrols … and issue appropriate penalties for offenders, even detention in cases of resistance,” said city mayor Nguyen Thanh Phong, according to state media.

Almost all public transport links with the city have already been suspended, while travellers originating from the city are required to stay in mandatory quarantine centres for at least two weeks.

Currently, more than a third of Vietnam’s 100 million people are under a lockdown, including residents of its capital Hanoi in the north.

Reporting by Reuters, Bloomberg, Agence France-Presse, Kyodo