Day: May 3, 2022

Laos has logged new daily Covid-19 cases at 153 over the past 24 hours with the total caseload of Covid-19 infections reaching over 207,867.

The number of deaths attributed to Covid-19 has reached 745 including one reported in the previous 24 hours, according to the National Taskforce Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control.

Of the new confirmed transmissions, 141 were classified as domestic transmissions and 12 as imported cases.

On Monday, some 61 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospitals nationwide.

As of May 1, over 5.78 million people across the country have been given with at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. The vaccinated represents 78.78% of population in the country. Meanwhile over 4.9 million people, 66.89 %, have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

Source: Lao News Agency

Malaysia has announced from May 1, 2022, fully-vaccinated inbound travelers are no longer required to undergo pre-departure and on-arrival COVID-19 tests, including children aged 12 and below as well as those who have been infected with COVID-19 within six to 60 days before departure to Malaysia.

Travel insurance will also not be a prerequisite for foreigners entering Malaysia.

However, inbound travellers who are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 still need to undergo an RT-PCR test two days before departure as well as a professionally-administered RTK-Ag test within 24 hours upon arrival in Malaysia and observe a five-day quarantine (quarantine exemption is only for those aged 17 and below).

The wearing of masks outdoors is optional but still mandatory indoors, including in shopping malls, offices, public transportation and e-hailing rides. Nevertheless, face coverings are still encouraged in crowded places, and people at higher risk from COVID-19. No more physical distancing is required, and people are now free to shake hands, but they are advised to practise good hand hygiene.

Meanwhile, check-ins via the contact tracing app MySejahtera will no longer be required, but the MySJ Trace function should be activated for contact tracing. Regardless of the vaccination status, people will be allowed to enter the premises except for those who test positive for COVID-19 and have been issued a home surveillance order.

The seven-day mandatory quarantine for positive cases remains, and the MySejahtera app is used for the COVID-19 test results submission and health assessment. However, those who test positive for COVID-19 may be released earlier from quarantine if their professionally-administered RTK-Ag test on Day 4 is negative.

Source: Lao News Agency

The construction of Bokeo international airport, located in Tonpheung district, Bokeo province has been 75% completed. The construction is expected to be fully completed by November 2022.

Head of the Bokeo International Airport Project Mr. Hongkham Oudomchit said on April 29 that contractors have completed the building of three main works including run way, taxi way and apron.

Contractors are speeding up the construction of the passenger terminal, technical building and control tower to ensure they are completed as planned.

Initially, the airport project was expected to be completed 18 months after its groundbreaking ceremony in September, 2020. However, its completion has been delayed by Covid-19 pandemic.

Currently, the installation of air traffic system is being accelerated with all necessary equipment items expected to be procured by July and installed by September.

The airport is expected to have flight test and open in November.

The build-operate-transfer project is designed to promote development, tourism and investment in Bokeo, especially in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, and air connectivity with international destinations.

Once fully completed, the US$175 million airport will be able to accommodate up to 1.5-2 million passengers per year.

Source: Lao News Agency

Beijing is preparing new hospital facilities to deal with a possible spike in COVID-19 cases, even though the numbers of new cases remain low.

State media reported Tuesday that a 1,000-bed hospital at Xiaotangshan in the northeastern suburbs built for the 2003 SARS outbreak has been refurbished in case it’s needed.

City officials on Saturday also announced they were setting up a 10,000-bed quarantine facility in the sprawling China National Exhibition Center to house those who have tested positive and their close contacts.

However, no more has been said about such plans and the reports have largely disappeared, a possible sign that officials are seeking to avoid spreading additional fears in a city already on edge.

New cases in Beijing have remained steady, with another 62 reported on Tuesday, 11 of them showing no symptoms, up just slightly from about 50 per day over the weekend. Beijing has reported about 450 cases in the 2-week-old outbreak.

Zero COVID

China has stuck to its strict “zero-COVID” approach that restricts travel, tests entire cities and sets up sprawling facilities to try to isolate every infected person. Lockdowns start with buildings and neighborhoods but become citywide if the virus spreads widely.

Beijing has isolated a few communities but shied away from the sweeping citywide measures seen elsewhere.

That’s a possible reflection of the desire to maintain an outward calm in the city that more than anything symbolizes the Communist Party’s unopposed rule over the vast country. The urge is especially critical in a year when President Xi Jinping is seeking a groundbreaking third five-year term as party leader despite concerns about the return of single-man rule.

Xi has closely identified himself and the party with “zero-COVID,” making it politically impossible to abandon the approach, even as many other countries relax their pandemic restrictions and experts question its usefulness, saying vaccines and new treatments for COVID-19 make it unnecessary.

Beijing has ordered restaurants and gyms closed for the May Day national holiday that runs through Wednesday, while major tourist sites in the city, including the Forbidden City and the Beijing Zoo, will close their indoor exhibition halls starting Tuesday. Schools are closed indefinitely, even while senior students prepare for crucial exams.

Three more rounds of testing have been ordered for most of the city’s 21 million people starting Tuesday, following a similar requirement last week. A negative test result obtained within the previous 48 hours is required to gain entry to most public spaces.

Lockdowns ease in Shanghai

Meanwhile, authorities in Shanghai are slowly beginning to ease lockdown restrictions that have confined most of the city’s 26 million people to their apartments, housing compounds or immediate neighborhoods for close to a month, and in some cases longer.

Shanghai reported another 5,669 cases on Tuesday, all but 274 of them asymptomatic, along with an additional 20 deaths. China’s largest city, home to its main stock market and biggest port, recorded a daily peak of 27,605 new cases nearly three weeks ago on April 13.

Shanghai’s surprisingly low death toll amid an outbreak of more than 400,000 cases has sparked questions about how such deaths are tallied.

The severe lockdown conditions have led to massive disruptions, including food shortages and a wider, though likely temporary, impact on the national economy. Desperate, outraged citizens have confronted authorities at barricades and online, screamed out of their windows and banged pots and pans in a sign of their frustration and anger.

In a development likely to lower confidence in public services, a video showing funeral parlor workers returning a body bag containing a live person to a retirement home has been circulating online.

A Shanghai district government confirmed the incident and said five officials have been punished and the license of a doctor revoked.

In the incident Sunday, two funeral parlor workers in full protective suits carried a yellow body bag out of a hearse. They then opened the bag and appeared to show a medical worker from the Xinchangzheng Nursing Home that the person was still alive. He or she was swiftly returned inside the home.

The incident triggered outrage on Chinese social media, with people questioning the reliability of the social welfare system during the prolonged lockdown.

The government of Putuo district where the nursing home is located said in a statement Monday that the person in the video has been receiving treatment in a hospital and has stable vital signs.

Source: voice of America

Muslims across India marked Eid al-Fitr on Tuesday by offering prayers outside mosques, even as the celebrations this year came in the backdrop of a series of recent attacks against the community during the month of Ramadan.

“We will not have the same kind of festivity” this time, said Mohammad Habeeb ur Rehman, a civil engineer in India’s financial capital, Mumbai. “This is the most painful Eid with worst memories for Indian Muslims.”

Anti-Muslim sentiment and attacks have surged across the country in the last month, including stone throwing between Hindu and Muslim groups during religious processions and subsequent demolitions of a number of properties mostly belonging to Muslims by authorities.

The community, which makes up 14% of India’s 1.4 billion population, is reeling from vilification by hard-line Hindu nationalists who have long espoused an anti-Muslim stance. Some leaders of India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have tacitly supported the violence, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has so far been silent about it. Eid al-Fitr is typically marked with communal prayers, celebratory gatherings around festive meals and new clothes, but celebrations in India for the past two years have been marred by COVID-19 restrictions.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, the Muslim festival has been subdued for the past three years because of an unprecedented military lockdown after India stripped the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019, followed by the pandemic. The region also saw a rise in violence during Ramadan, with at least 20 militants, two civilians and five police and soldiers killed.

“As we prepare to celebrate Eid, a strong sense of collective loss jars at us,” said Bashir Ahmed, a businessman in Srinagar.

Kashmir is the Muslim-majority disputed region where a violent insurgency against Indian rule and New Delhi’s brutal crackdown has raged for over three decades. Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict.

Meanwhile in the capital, New Delhi, hundreds assembled in the Jama Masjid, one of India’s largest mosques, while offering Eid prayers there for the first time in over two years due to pandemic restrictions. Families came together early on Tuesday morning while many people shared hugs and wishes.

Source: voice of America