Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

SINGAPORE, Mar 29 (NNN-CNA) – Singapore has begun penalising people, who refused to adhere to social distancing, in the latest bid to curb the COVID-19.

Beginning Friday, anyone found standing in a queue, or sitting, less than a metre (3.3 feet) from another person, in a public place, can be jailed up to six months or fined up to 10,000 Singapore dollars ($7,000), or both.

KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 29 (NNN-XINHUA) – The joint fight against COVID-19 has bonded Malaysia and China closer, as China sending much-needed supplies and support to Malaysia, Malaysian Foreign Minister, Hishammuddin Hussein said, Saturday.

In the handover ceremony of medical equipment from the Chinese government to Malaysia, Hishammuddin said, China has once again come forward to work closely with Malaysia, as his country faces very difficult times against COVID-19, quoting a Chinese saying: “We really truly know our friends in times of crisis.”

MANILA, Mar 29 (NNN-PNA) – The number of COVID-19 cases in the Philippines has exceeded 1,000, with 272 new cases reported on Saturday, the biggest rise in a single day.

The Department of Health said, the country’s total is now at 1,075, with 68 recorded deaths, and 35 recovered patients, as of 4:00 p.m. local time, yesterday, Mar 28.

BEIJING, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese health authority said Sunday it received reports of 45 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland on Saturday, of which 44 were imported.

A new domestic case was reported in Henan Province, the National Health Commission said.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Sunday fired two suspected ballistic missiles into the sea, South Korea and Japan said, continuing a streak of weapons launches that suggests leader Kim Jong Un is trying to strengthen domestic support amid worries about a possible coronavirus outbreak in the country.

BEIJING, Mar 28 (APP): A renowned Chinese scholar has suggested that the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic could be effectively slowed down in Pakistan by blocking the flow of population and keeping everyone home as much as possible.

“By blocking the flow of population and keeping everyone at home as much as possible, we can effectively slow down the spread of the virus,” Cheng Xizhong, special commentator of China Economic Net and visiting professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Law said in his article.

TOKYO, March 28. /TASS/: The organization committee of the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo believes that the international competitions should be held between June and September next year, chief of the committee Yoshiro Mori said Saturday.

"I believe that we should think about the period between June and September. I hope that we can make certain decisions in this regard next week," Kyodo news agency quoted him as saying.

28 March 2020; AFP: The Chinese city of 11 million people that was Ground Zero for what became the global coronavirus pandemic partly reopened on Saturday after more than two months of almost total isolation.

Wuhan was placed under lockdown in January with residents forbidden to leave, roadblocks ring-fencing the city's outskirts and drastic restrictions on daily life.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu extended a personal invitation on Saturday for three major U.S. newspapers to station on the island their China-based journalists whose expulsion Beijing has announced.

China said on March 18 it was revoking the press accreditations of all American journalists in the China bureaus of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, which were due to expire at the end of 2020.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday promised a massive unprecedented package of steps to cushion the economy from the coronavirus pandemic, saying the country was close to a national emergency as infections surged in Tokyo.

Abe told a country that is seeing a rising number of deaths and cases from the outbreak that the “huge, powerful” measures would be greater than the response to the global financial crisis of 2008.