Asia accounted for the majority of the world's new COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours with 112,802 cases, including 81,535 in Japan alone; 14,859 in Taiwan (China); 12,262 in South Korea; ... Asia also recorded 412 new deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths in the region due to COVID-19 to 1,525,676. Of the total 211,982,639 COVID-19 cases in Asia, 196,480,111 have been cured.

In Thailand, tourist destinations have begun to bustle again after the country fully reopened its borders in the second half of last year. Health authorities have conducted random testing, which has shown that the infection rate among international visitors is not high. In Thailand, the dominant sub-variant is the BA.2.75 lineage of the Omicron variant, with a prevalence of 86-87%. The XBB sub-variant is very rare, while the XBB.1.5 sub-variant is not present in the country. From January 16 to 21, Thailand had 627 COVID-19 hospitalizations, an average of about 90 cases per day. A total of 44 people died from COVID-19 during this period. In addition, the country currently has 277 COVID-19 patients with lung infections, of whom 178 require life support. Dr Tares Krassanairawiwong, director-general of the Department of Disease Control (DoDC), said the government will maintain current measures to contain the infection and continue to closely monitor the situation, adding that "there is no reason to worry about the epidemic situation at this time".

In Europe - the region with the highest number of infections in the world, 17,338 new infections were recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases in the region to 244,448,628. The situation of new cases in countries in the past 24 hours is as follows: France has 7,263 more cases; Russia has 4,702 more cases; Austria has 2,612 more cases... This region recorded 157 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths due to COVID-19 to 2,001,425 cases.

The situation of new COVID-19 cases in other regions is as follows: North America recorded 7,542 new infections (this number includes 7,047 cases in the US, 487 cases in Mexico, 7 cases in Cuba); South America had 1,381 new cases (this number includes 1,174 cases in Chile; 207 cases in Bolivia); Africa had 313 new cases; Oceania had 49 new cases./.

PV