Micronesia is probably the last country on Earth with over 100,000 people to have the virus appear en masse. Although no infected people have so far been reported from Turkmenistan, according to experts, this is because the government is not dealing with the epidemic, MTI reports.
Several cases were known across the country: 35 people tested positive in Kosrae State, while seven people were infected in Pohnpei. Authorities have asked the public to avoid crowds and wear masks.
Micronesia has planned to reopen its borders on August 1 and end the mandatory quarantine. Last year, the country made vaccination against the coronavirus mandatory and threatened those who refused to withdraw federal funds. As a result, the vaccination rate of the population is high.
In several Pacific island nations, including Kiribati, Tonga, Samoa and Nauru, the coronavirus began spreading like a pandemic for the first time this year. Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands have so far avoided the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the community.
Meanwhile, in Australia, there are nearly a record number of people infected with coronavirus, 5,350 people, being treated in hospital. In the states of Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia, the numbers have not been this high since the start of the pandemic.
Authorities have recommended employers allow their employees to work from home, and have argued in favor of wearing masks indoors and booster vaccinations.
In Australia, highly contagious BA.4 and BA.5 sub variants of the omicron version of the coronavirus are circulating. More than 300,000 new cases have been recorded in the past seven days. According to the authorities, the real number of infected people may be twice that, and several million cases can be expected in the coming weeks. On Wednesday, 53,850 new infections were detected. The daily number of new cases has not been this high in two months.
95 percent of Australians over the age of 16 have received at least two doses of the coronavirus vaccine. Seventy-one percent are vaccinated with three or more doses. Thanks to this, only nine million infected people and 10,884 deaths are known in the country of over 26 million people.