Every state in Malaysia except Sarawak is set to be placed under lockdown from Friday, a senior minister said on Tuesday according to reports. The country’s so-called movement control order will be extended to cover the states of Kedah, Perak, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Terengganu and Perli, Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob was cited as saying by local media outlet Today Online. The order, which will be in place until at least February 4, is being enforced following advice from the Health Ministry after an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in those states, Ismail Sabri said. Malaysia’s Johor, Selangor, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan states were placed under lockdown last week after the nation’s monarch approved a state of national emergency to stem the spread of a third wave of coronavirus infections. What Malaysia’s new coronavirus lockdown and state of emergency mean Singapore ramps up vaccine plans Singapore , which is mulling additional measures to ensure its Covid-19 infection numbers remain under control, is preparing to ramp up its vaccination programme by appointing a vendor to set up 36 vaccination centres that can cater to at least 2,000 people a day. It also wants the vendor to have 10 mobile teams who can inoculate people at places such as nursing homes, local broadsheet The Straits Times said, in reporting on details of a government tender document. The document, by the Ministry of Health, suggests authorities could deliver more than 70,000 shots a day from next month. For a population of 5.7 million, this means the country could, if it has enough vaccines, complete vaccinating residents with two shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in a matter of five to six months. Authorities earlier said there would be enough vaccines for the entire population by the third quarter of the year. Philippines approves Sinovac trials The Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed China’s Sinovac Biotech to hold clinical trials in the country for its coronavirus vaccine, and will accept 500,000 doses of the company’s CoronaVac being donated by China, the regulator’s head Eric Domingo said on Tuesday. Also approved for clinical trials are the vaccines of Johnson & Johnson, and China’s Clover Biopharmaceuticals. Domingo said the Philippine Department of Health can use the donated doses at its discretion without FDA approval, even if Sinovac Biotech had just applied for its vaccine’s emergency use. The local regulator is still waiting for Sinovac to submit documents on late-stage trials before processing its separate application, Domingo said. Reacting to the FDA director’s decision to waive through the entry of the donated vaccine doses, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said: “Ah, if it’s them doing it, they can. But if it’s the Presidential Security Group, it can’t?” Health secretary Francisco Duque had earlier branded as “dangerous” the use of Sinopharm vaccines by the Presidential Security Group even if these had not passed FDA approval. ‘BFF prices’, no corruption: Manila defends deal with China’s Sinovac Sotto said the FDA action will be included in the agenda this Friday, when the Senate resumes its inquiry on the vaccine roll-out. Sinovac’s vaccine had vastly different efficacy rates in four clinical trial sites, fuelling concerns about it. The Philippines has said it will buy 25 million vaccine doses from Sinovac, expecting the first shipment to arrive as early as next month. The country also announced it will buy 20 million doses of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said on Tuesday that this adds to the deals to buy a total of 72 million doses from AstraZeneca, Novavax and Sinovac. President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday he would not stop Filipinos from getting shots of the Covid-19 vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech, despite reports in Norway of deaths among frail elderly people after being inoculated. “Almost everybody that I know [is] scrambling to buy this Pfizer [vaccine]. To me I think it’s a good one,” he said in a late-night televised address. “If you want to follow the experience of Norway, go ahead. Nobody would stop you.” Duterte defended the government’s supply deals involving CoronaVac, saying it was being widely used, and assured the public of corruption-free vaccine supply deals. The Philippines has the second-highest Covid-19 infections and deaths in Southeast Asia, next to Indonesia. New Zealand to require pre-departure tests Travellers to New Zealand from most other nations will need to show negative coronavirus test results before boarding as of next Monday. New Zealand recently imposed the test requirement for travellers from the US and Britain, and authorities said on Tuesday that it is being extending to all other countries, with the exception of Australia and a handful of Pacific Island nations. Travellers returning from Antarctica are also exempt. There is currently no community spread of the virus in New Zealand, with all known infections among travellers who have been put into quarantine at the border. Most travellers are required to spend two weeks in quarantine upon arrival. For New Zealand, flattening the curve wasn’t enough: Ardern Meanwhile, New Zealand said it was looking to secure a small batch of Covid-19 vaccines early to protect its high-risk workers, as pressure mounts on the government to vaccinate its population. “We are exploring some possibilities as to whether we can get a smaller number of vaccines earlier to vaccinate our at-risk workers, our border workers,” Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said. The government has secured enough vaccines to inoculate all of the country’s 5 million people, but they have to be cleared for use by the local medical authority. Most its population would only be vaccinated in the second half of 2021. Critics have slammed the government, saying New Zealand has fallen behind the rest of the world. Japan taps Kono as vaccine minister The outspoken reformer named by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to lead a massive vaccine roll-out on Tuesday pledged to work quickly on inoculations as the country nears approval of Pfizer’s shot for the coronavirus. Taro Kono, a former defence minister, told a news conference he will do everything he can to get as many people as possible inoculated when Japan looks to start vaccinations in late February. Kono is facing a public more sceptical of vaccines than in many nations and is charged with leading a campaign set to be a defining moment for Suga, whose support has fallen hard due to what many see as mistakes in virus management. Japan to study cases of people infected even after coronavirus vaccination Kono, named to the vaccine post late Monday, has been seen as a potential rival to Suga as premier. When Suga became prime minister in September, he named Kono to an administrative reform post in his cabinet rather than one of the traditional high-profile jobs, initially raising suspicions he was trying to sideline a potential rival. Kono said on a BS-TBS TV show before the news conference that he would be responsible for coordinating among various ministries and 1,700 local authorities that will ultimately administer the doses. He suggested he could enlist the help of the private logistics sector, and did not deny he might seek to involve the Self-Defence Forces or volunteers. Japan will be one of the slowest leading economies to start inoculations and has taken a more cautious approach than the likes of the US and the UK. Concern is also growing over the new variant first identified in the UK, with Japan’s Health Ministry saying on Tuesday community transmission of the strain may now be ongoing in the country after finding the mutation for the first time among people with no recent travel history. Indonesia records record daily rise in deaths Indonesia reported a record daily increase of 308 coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, taking the total deaths in the country to 26,590, data from the country’s health ministry showed. The Southeast Asian nation also recorded 10,365 new Covid-19 cases, taking the total tally to 927,380. Indonesia has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths from Covid-19 in Southeast Asia. Reporting by Today Online, Raissa Robles, Kok Xinghui, Reuters, Associated Press, Bloomberg