Australia has expanded a Covid-19 lockdown to a rural town and the coastal region of Byron Bay, as fears grew that the virus has spread from Sydney to the northern tip of the country's most populous state.
Tamworth, a farming town 414 km northwest of Sydney, and Byron Bay, a tourist spot about 770km north of the city, will both enter a seven-day lockdown, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
Neither Tamworth nor Byron Bay has yet recorded a Covid-19 case, but Ms Berejiklian said two infected people had contravened travel bans and travelled there.
"As a precaution, the health experts have recommended we lock down Tamworth for one week," Ms Berejiklian told reporters.
New South Wales reported 283 locally acquired cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, up from 262 cases a day earlier.
The state has struggled to contain a surge of the highly infectious Delta variant despite a lockdown of Sydney now in its seventh week.
Neighbouring Victoria state said it would ease restrictions after reporting 11 new Covid-19 cases, the same as the previous day.
The majority of the new cases in Victoria spent time in the community while infectious but state Premier Daniel Andrews said the lockdown of areas outside the state capital of Melbourne would be lifted today.
Melbourne would remain in lockdown - for the sixth time since the pandemic began - until at least 12 August.
In Brisbane, capital of Queensland, authorities reported four new local cases today, the first day after the city came out of stay-at-home restrictions.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is under fire for a sluggish vaccine rollout, with only 22% of Australians above 16 fully vaccinated.
An opinion poll by an Australian newspaper showed his public approval rating had hit its lowest since the pandemic began.
Mr Morrison acknowledged mounting frustrations but urged people to be patient.
"I know they're sick of it, I know they're angry and I know they want it to stop and for life to get back to where they knew it," he told reporters in Canberra.
"But there can be no short cuts."
Australia has reported about 36,250 cases and 939 deaths, including a woman in her 90s whose death in Sydney was reported today.
Mr Morrison has said all Australians over 16 will be offered a vaccine by the end of the year, with prospects for achieving that boosted when the pharmaceutical regulator gave provisional approval for the Moderna shot.
Italian police disrupt network selling fake Covid 'green passes'
Fake versions of Covid "green passes" have begun to circulate in Italy just days after they were introduced, police said, adding they had broken up a network selling false evidence of vaccination, recovery or testing.
The police said they had identified four suspects, including two minors, in an ongoing investigation.
"Thousands of users were registered on well-known communication platforms where fake green passes were offered for sale, with an absolute guarantee of anonymity, to be paid in cryptocurrency or vouchers for online shopping platforms, at a price between 150 and 500 euro," Italy's postal police said in a statement.
Police added they had confiscated 32 groups within Telegram - an instant messaging app - in the investigation.
The green pass, an extension of the European Union's digital Covid-19 certification, became compulsory on Friday in Italy to gain entry into cinemas, museums, indoor sports venues, or for indoor dining at restaurants.
The pass shows that bearers have been received at least one vaccine dose, have recovered from Covid-19 within the past six months, or have tested negative in the previous 48 hours.
It will also be required on long-distance trains and buses after 1 September, and will be mandatory for school and university staff as well as university students.
The police probe came as 20 million Italian downloaded their green passes in the past three days, according to Health Minister Roberto Speranza.
"It's an extraordinary number that shows the awareness and participation of citizens of our country in the fight against Covid," Mr Speranza wrote on Facebook.
Olympics organisers report 28 new Games-related cases in Tokyo
Tokyo Olympics organisers have reported 28 new Games-related Covid cases, bringing the total since 1 July to 458 cases.
Japan concluded the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games yesterday, while the Paralympics are due to start 24 August.
The new figures come amid a slide in support for Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, whose popularity now stands below 30% for the first time since he took office.
The survey shows that the Tokyo Olympic Games failed to boost his ratings amid a resurgence of coronavirus infections
Roughly a third disapproved of holding the Games and 60% said they did not want Mr Suga to stay on as premier, according to the poll conducted by Asahi newspaper, darkening his ruling party's prospects in general elections to be held later this year.
In the poll conducted over the weekend, Mr Suga's support slid to 28%, the lowest since he became prime minister in September last year.
Of those polled, 56% of those who replied said it was good to hold the Tokyo Games, while 32% thought it was a bad idea.
Japan's slow vaccination rollouts have hurt Mr Suga's popularity and a spike in new infections, caused by the rapid spread of the Delta variant, has overshadowed the Olympic Games with cases hitting a milestone of one million on Friday.
China enters third week of outbreaks
China has reported more Covid-19 cases as it entered the third week of its current outbreak, while some cities added rounds of mass testing in the effort to stamp out locally-transmitted infections.
The Delta variant has been detected in more than a dozen cities since 20 July, and officials have asked local government authorities to rigorously track infections and close loopholes in control efforts.
"A laxity of mind should be firmly overcome," the National Health Commission (NHC) said in a statement that called for the outbreak to be curbed.
Analysts see the Delta variant as the biggest test of China's zero-Covid strategy since last year's initial outbreak, but expect authorities will quash it before it gets out of control, even if at some economic cost.
Yesterday's 125 new confirmed infections on the mainland included 94 locally transmitted cases, compared to the previous day's figure of 96, with 81 locally transmitted, while the rest were imported from abroad, the NHC said.
Most of the local patients were in the central city of Zhengzhou and the eastern city of Yangzhou, government figures showed.
Yangzhou has started a fifth round of mass tests, city authorities said today, when Zhengzhou is expected to wrap up sample collection for its third round of citywide tests.
The eastern city of Nanjing, hit hard in the outbreak that began late in July, though it reported no more than five daily local cases since 2 August, has also started a third round of targeted testing in some areas, after three rounds citywide.
