Myanmar’s hospitals, supplies face extreme pressure as virus arrives

A woman wearing a mask walks with food and other supplies bought at a local market in Naypyitaw. (AP pic)

YANGON: Myanmar, which shares borders with China, India, Thailand, Bangladesh and Laos, is facing the reality of the novel coronavirus, after the government officially confirmed the first two cases of Covid-19 late Monday.

That means making sure its 54 million people can access basic food and supplies while implementing measures to slow spreading, experts say.

It won’t be easy. Myanmar’s healthcare system is far from developed and “the coronavirus pandemic is expected to put significant pressure on Myanmar’s medical facilities,” the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement advising its nationals to leave the country. “They may not be able to offer routine care.”

Myanmar confirmed on Wednesday a third coronavirus case, a 26-year-old local who returned from the UK on March 21. The man tested positive while under quarantine at the Insein Public Hospital in Yangon, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports.

Myanmar’s gross domestic product was US$71 billion in 2018, about one-seventh of nearby Thailand’s, which has 69 million people.

“While working to control the virus outbreak, Myanmar simultaneously needs to make sure the public can buy much-needed commodities at a reasonable price,” said Maung Aung, an independent economist.

The government must make sure people are able to buy enough rice, food and oil. Quotas and price controls in conjunction with private businesses will help stem potential panic buying, he said by phone from Yangon, where he is secretary of the local transit authority.

“We don’t see any possibility of food shortage here, but panic shopping could lead to high potential for spread of this virus,” Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi said in a televised address late Tuesday.

There are no plans for lock-downs or closures of businesses and factories, markets and shopping centres. Much-needed public services would remain in operation, she said.

The Central Bank of Myanmar cut its policy rate twice the past two weeks. The second cut, one percentage point to 8.5% goes into effect April 1.

The government earlier announced a fund worth US$70 million be used to issue one-year loans at a 1% interest rate to affected businesses in the manufacturing, hospitality and tourism sectors.

The deadline on tax payments for businesses in those prioritised industries has been extended to September 2020, according to a report by consultancy BowerGroupAsia.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Tuesday that all visitors and Myanmar nationals from all countries must show a health certificate from respective health authorities that they are free of Covid-19 issued within the past 72 hours before arrival on flights, and they are all subject to 14-days facility-quarantine upon arrival.

Diplomats from all nations are subject to 14-days home-quarantine.

Myanmar on March 19 closed all land borders with its neighbours to foreigners.

“It’s important to know if there are cases, how many and where they are, so control measures can be implemented,” said Dr Marcus Zervos, head of infectious diseases at Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System, who worked on public health and infectious diseases at a Yangon hospital last November. Tightening of travel and social distancing cannot be understated, he said.

Suu Kyi also urged returnees to “cooperate responsibly” with quarantines at designated places and daily reporting about their health to official agencies.

Myanmar has traditionally had fluid borders with some neighbours, including Thailand, enabling millions of people to come and go for jobs in construction, hospitality outlets and food processing – a large portion of labourers at Thai seafood processing companies are from Myanmar, once called Burma. Thailand declared a state of emergency, effective March 26, as Covid-19 cases have surged.

Myanmar’s recent economic development has come because of a surge in tourists, and incomes at hotels, tour agencies and many restaurants have quickly dried up with the virus outbreak.

Workers from those industries will certainly face a budget squeeze, meaning that discretionary items such as cars will see little demand, said Soe Tun, president of the Myanmar Automobile Manufacturers and Distributors Association.

“For now, we cannot expect any potential purchase from these sectors,” he said.

Click here for our live update of the Covid-19 situation in Malaysia.

95% of tabligh members have come forward for screening, says top cop

Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador.

KUALA LUMPUR: Police say 95% of those who attended the recent tabligh gathering at the Sri Petaling mosque have come forward for Covid-19 tests and screening.

Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador said the remaining 5% are being tracked down.

“In this regard, the police have set up a task force involving Criminal Investigation Department officers at all district and state levels, in an effort to track down those who attended the gathering at the Sri Petaling mosque here last month.

“As a result, and in collaboration with the health ministry, the task force was able to get the details of up to 10,000 of them (who attended the tabligh programme).

“We are still tracking down the others,” he said in a special interview aired on Radio Television Malaysia today.

He added that the police are actively contacting the tabligh members to urge them to inform anyone they know who has yet to undergo screening to do so.

“I also urge the public not to discriminate against members of this tabligh group as they have not done anything wrong in this matter (Covid-19 issue) and it could have a negative impact on them.

“Stop criticising, ridiculing and uttering abusive words against the tabligh members.

“They have, in fact, been very cooperative with the police and we were able to get more details from them, which they obtained on their own initiative (by tracking down fellow members),” he said.

He also urged members of the public to inform the police if they know of any patient or individual suspected of having Covid-19 in order to assist the ministry.

Op Covid-19: Cops detain duo, seize 50kg of ketum at KL roadblock


Soldiers and police officers conducting checks at a roadblock at Jalan Kuala Kangsar, Ipoh March 22, 2020. — Picture by Farhan Najib
Soldiers and police officers conducting checks at a roadblock at Jalan Kuala Kangsar, Ipoh March 22, 2020. — Picture by Farhan Najib

KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — Police detained two men and seized 50 kilogrammes of ketum leaves at a roadblock during the Op Covid-19 operation in Jalan Sungai Tua near here early this morning.

Hulu Selangor disrtrict police chief Supt Arsad Kamarrudin said the duo, aged 26 and 46 were detained at about 1.40am.

He said the team which was conducting checks at the roadblock stopped a Mitsubishi Triton vehicle which was heading towards Hulu Yam Bharu after the duo were caught behaving in a suspicious manner.

“Upon checking the vehicle, police found 10 plastic packets believed to contain ketum leaves weighing 50 kilogrammes,” he said in a statement today.

Arsad said the two suspects were now in remand until tomorrow and the case was being investigated under Section 30 (3) of the Poisons Act 1952. — Bernama

Asian markets rally on Fed’s bond-buying pledge

ASIAN markets and crude prices surged while the dollar sank today after the Federal Reserve unveiled an unprecedented bond-buying programme to support the US economy.

While most of the planet goes into lockdown, traders gave a massive thumbs up to the US central bank’s pledge to essentially print cash in a move not seen since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.

All premises must adhere to social distancing rules, says KL mayor


Baba Dona Super Mart Lembah Pantai taking precautionary measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 infection by implementing social distancing, crowd control measures, March 22, 2020. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon
Baba Dona Super Mart Lembah Pantai taking precautionary measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 infection by implementing social distancing, crowd control measures, March 22, 2020. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon

KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — All licensees, employees, customers and suppliers who wish to enter supermarkets, sundry shops, restaurants and public markets must adhere to the one-metre social distancing rules until March 31.

Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Nor Hisham Ahmad Dahlan said shop owners, operators or traders are responsible for controlling the number of visitors in their premises to ensure that the social distancing measures are observed during that period.

In a directive issued today, he said all licencees, employees, customers and suppliers are also encouraged to wear face masks as well as to provide and use hand sanitisers.

“As such, the earlier directive No 1/2020 dated March 22, which had made it compulsory for the public to wear masks when entering the premises has been voided.

“Enforcement actions under the Local Government Act 1976 will be taken against operators of supermarkets, sundry shops, restaurants and public or private markets who fail to comply with the directive,” he said. — Bernama

China to lift travel curbs on Hubei province, including Wuhan

People stand in a spaced line to buy pork at the entrance gate of a closed residential community in Wuhan. (AP pic)

BEIJING: China announced Tuesday that a lockdown would be lifted on more than 50 million people in central Hubei province where the coronavirus first emerged late last year.

But fears rose over a second wave of infections fuelled by people arriving from overseas.

After two months living with draconian curbs on daily life, residents will be allowed to leave Hubei from midnight Tuesday if healthy, while Wuhan city – the initial epicentre of the outbreak – will end restrictions from April 8.

The province ordered the shutdown in January but has been gradually easing the rules and permitting people to move about within Hubei and return to work.

People who wish to travel in or out of Hubei or Wuhan will be able to as long as they have a “green” health code issued by authorities.

But schools in the province will remain closed.

New cases have slowed dramatically over the last month, although the first locally transmitted infection in nearly a week was reported in Wuhan Tuesday, along with three cases elsewhere in the country.

But the figures pale in comparison to imported cases, which reached 74 nationwide on Tuesday – a trend that has fuelled anxiety about a possible second wave of infections just as authorities appeared to be bringing the country’s outbreak under control.

Seven more people died, the National Health Commission said, all in Wuhan.

Second wave 

The 74 imported cases were the most since officials started reporting the data at the beginning of March, and the number was nearly double that reported Monday.

As nations across the globe battle to contain the pandemic, which has now killed more than 16,500 people worldwide, the total tally of imported cases in China has soared to 427.

Many cities have brought in tough rules to quarantine arrivals, and all Beijing-bound international flights are being diverted to other urban centres where passengers are screened for the virus.

Authorities in Beijing said Tuesday that anyone entering China via another city and then making their way to the capital in the last two weeks would also be tested for the virus and told to enter quarantine.

Shanghai and Beijing each reported a locally-transmitted infection Tuesday that came from an imported patient.

State media warned of a second wave from abroad, with the nationalistic Global Times saying on its front page that “inadequate quarantine measures” meant it was “highly likely, even inevitable”.

There have now been more than 81,000 cases in China and the death toll has reached 3,277.

Click here for our live update of the Covid-19 situation in Malaysia.

Hand-washing: A luxury millions of Yemenis can’t afford

People load up on water from a cistern at a makeshift camp for displaced Yemenis in the northern Hajjah province. (AFP pic)

SANA’A: Hand-washing to combat the spread of Covid-19 is the order of the day, but it’s an unaffordable luxury for millions in war-ravaged Yemen where clean water is dangerously scarce.

Yemen’s broken healthcare system has yet to register any cases of the disease, but if the pandemic does hit, the impact will be unimaginable in a country where five years of conflict has created what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Five years after a Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen to support the government against the Iran-backed Huthi rebels, some 80 percent of the population is in need of aid.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it was concerned that many Yemenis have no access to clean water or soap.

“We are extremely worried,” Caroline Seguin, MSF’s head of programmes in Yemen, Iraq and Jordan, told AFP.

“We can recommend they wash their hands, but what if they don’t have anything to wash with?”

Yemeni Iran-backed Huthi rebels military police parade in the streets of the capital Sana’a in January. (AFP pic)

Nearly 18 million people, including 9.2 million children, do not have regular access to safe water, according to the UN’s children’s agency.

And only one third of Yemen’s population has access to piped water, UNICEF said.

Eleven-year-old Mohammed’s family, who live in the rebel-controlled Hajja province north of the capital Sanaa, are among those for whom water does not come out of a tap.

He and his sister leave their home on the back of a donkey every morning to retrieve supplies from a murky well three kilometres from their home.

“I get the donkey ready… and then head out at 7:30am, and I keep going back and forth until 10am,” Mohammed told AFP.

The two children wait for their turn to fill up plastic canisters with a dirty hose.

Their family has no choice but to drink the contaminated water and use it for cooking.

Yemenis fill jerricans with water from reservoirs at a makeshift camp for displaced people who fled fighting between the Huthi rebels and the Saudi-backed government. (AFP pic)

Cholera and disease

Yemen suffered one of its worst ever outbreaks of cholera in 2017.

“Years of under-investment in public water and sanitation systems provided the foundations for this outbreak,” Bismarck Swangin, UNICEF Yemen’s chief of communications, told AFP.

“The risk still remains if access to water continues to be low.”

Tens of thousands of people — most of them civilians — have been killed since March 2015 when the Saudi-led coalition intervened in the war that has pushed the country to the brink of famine.

The conflict, which shows no signs of abating, has crippled the country’s healthcare system and paved the way for the spread of diseases.

Mohammed Aqil, a doctor at Al-Jaada medical centre in Hajjah, said the clinic deals with around 300 patients a day.

“Most of the cases are linked to diseases transmitted by consuming water that is not safe for drinking,” he told AFP.

A disaster

MSF said given the current situation of the healthcare system, which has all but collapsed, it would be “a disaster” if the new Covid-19 reached Yemen, long the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest nation.

Yemeni women from a poor family prepare food for cooking as other girls wash clothes in a shack in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida in January 2019. (AFP pic)

“Frequently washing hands is the most effective way to protect against the coronavirus, but what will more than half the Yemeni people who don’t have access to safe water do,” the International Committee of the Red Cross in Yemen tweeted on Sunday.

More than 12,000 deaths have been recorded since the virus first emerged in December, according to an AFP tally, most of them in Europe.

In Sanaa, the Iran-backed Huthi insurgents who control the capital and large parts of the north have suspended school classes and flights as cases of the virus in nearby countries soar.

Meanwhile, more than 1,700 cases have been recorded across the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations, with four deaths — two in the United Arab Emirates and two in Bahrain.

“We cannot overwhelm the already fragile health system in Yemen,” the World Health Organisation told AFP, adding that the “introduction of the disease in Yemen will overrun hospitals and health facilities”.

Submissions on Isa Samad corruption case postponed to April 8


File photo showing Tan Sri Isa Samad at the Kuala Lumpur High Court Complex, October 14, 2019. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa
File photo showing Tan Sri Isa Samad at the Kuala Lumpur High Court Complex, October 14, 2019. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — The High Court here today postponed the hearing of submissions in the case of former Felda chairman Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad who faces one charge of criminal breach of trust and nine charges of receiving bribes exceeding RM3 million, to April 8.

Based on information posted on the court website, today’s proceedings were postponed due to the closure of courts in line with the movement control order imposed by the government from March 18 to 31, to contain Covid-19.

When contacted, High Court Deputy Registrar Mahyudin Mohmad Som confirmed the postponement of oral submissions today by both the prosecution and defence, before Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali.

The offences allegedly committed by Mohd Isa, 71, are connected to the purchase of the Merdeka Palace Hotel & Suites in Kuching, Sarawak, by Felda Investment Corporation Sdn Bhd (FICSB). The offences were committed at the Felda Tower, Platinum Park, No. 11, Persiaran KLCC here, between April 29, 2014 and December 15, 2015. — Bernama

Ramasamy: Miti should release full list of factories allowed to operate


Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P. Ramasamy said there are now many grey areas in the enforcement of the movement control order on industrial and manufacturing facilities. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin
Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P. Ramasamy said there are now many grey areas in the enforcement of the movement control order on industrial and manufacturing facilities. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin

GEORGE TOWN, March 23 — Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P. Ramasamy has urged the International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) to release a full list of factories that have been allowed to operate.

The Penang lawmaker said there are now many grey areas in the enforcement of the movement control order (MCO) on industrial and manufacturing facilities.

“It would be helpful if Miti releases the full details as to why some companies are operating and some are not,” he said in a statement issued today.

He said Miti had only released a list of the kind of industrial and manufacturing facilities that can operate during this time.

“Even before the list was announced, some manufacturing establishments have taken the necessary measures in downsizing the workforce only to retain some essential services,” he said.

He pointed out that some manufacturers in Penang have allowed their staff to work at home.

He admitted that it would take time for Miti to come up with the full list and details of which factories are closed and which may remain open, but this information should still be released.

He said Miti can release an initial list and continuously update it as more information is gathered from the ground.

He said the MCO must be enforced without fear or favour and this included factories and the manufacturing sector.

“Local and foreign companies in Malaysia must play their role in preventing the spread of the virus,” he said.

He reminded the companies that they have a responsibility towards their employees in terms of not exposing them to the hazards of working in close proximity. 

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