Category: Health

Covid-19 has infected 218 people and claimed two lives nationwide over the past 24 hours, bringing the total of confirmed Covid-19 cases to 141,301 including 3,138 active cases and 612 deaths, according to the National Taskforce Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control.

The newly infections were detected among 3,014 people tested for Covid-19 yesterday.

Some 38 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospitals nationwide, according to Deputy Director General of the Department of Communicable Diseases Control, Ministry of Health, Dr Sisavath Soutthanilaxay.

Of the new confirmed cases, 204 were classified as domestic infections including 78 in Xayaboury, 29 in Xieng Khuang, 24 in Vientiane, 20 in Attapeu and 10 each in Huaphan, Borikhamxay and Savannakhet.

On Feb 18, the Lao PDR received 594,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine from the COVAX Facility – a partnership co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and the World Health Organization (WHO), with UNICEF as a key delivery partner.

The arrival of this latest shipment is part of the COVAX Facility’s ongoing efforts to ensure global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

This new batch of AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines makes it the tenth shipment of COVID-19 vaccines that has been delivered to the Lao PDR through the COVAX Facility, following a recent donation of almost 1.7 million doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine through COVAX.

Combined with previously received COVID-19 vaccines via the COVAX Facility, this new arrival will provide full vaccination to over 4.1 million people or approximately 56% of the Lao population.

Source: Lao News Agency

Laos has reported 441 new Covid-19 cases and three new deaths attributed to Covid-19 over the previous 24 hours, bringing the total of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country to 139,685 including 3,545 active cases and 601 deaths.

Director General of the Department of Communicable Diseases Control, Ministry of Health, Dr Rattanaxay Phetsouvanh told a press conference today that the new infections included 415 cases classified as domestic infections and 26 as imported cases.

The local infections included 73 cases reported in Vientiane, 69 in Xayaboury, 63 in Huaphan, 62 in Savannakhet, 39 in Attapeu and 30 in Phongsaly.

Meanwhile, the imported cases were documented in Huaphan (23 cases), and Savannakhet (3). Yesterday, some 292 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospitals nationwide.

As of Feb 14, over 4.8 million people, representing 65.68% of population in the country, have been vaccinated with at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to Deputy Director General of the National Centre for Laboratory and Epidemiology, Ministry of Health, Dr Buaphanh Khamphaphongphan.

Over 4.2 million people, representing 57.71% of the population, have been administered with all recommended doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Globally, as of Feb 14, Covid-19 has infected over 410 million people and claimed over 5.8 million lives, according to the World Health Organization.

Source: Lao News Agency

In Numbers

558.2 mt of food distributed

US$ 880,000 six-month (Jan 2022 – June 2022) net funding requirements

81,222 people assisted In December 2021

Operational Updates

• In response to the needs of communities affected by recent floods and the socio-economic impacts of COVID19, WFP in partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare and the Lao Red Cross distributed 524 mt of rice and 40 mt of fortified cooking oil to 20,406 beneficiaries (10,172 women) in Xayaboury and Savannakhet provinces.

• In partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, WFP conducted a warehouse management training in December 2021, supporting 30 Government staff (three women) from Salavane, Attapeu and Sekong Provinces with enhanced capacities in emergency logistics preparedness and response.

• As part of the Agriculture for Nutrition programme, nutrition awareness training sessions were conducted at village level in 12 districts reaching a total of 12,226 participants, most of them pregnant and lactating women and mothers with small children under 5 years old. In addition to the training sessions, WFP distributed 1,290 garden and livestock grants to households who completed the before mentioned farmer nutrition schools across the 12 target districts in the north. The grants of around USD 110 each aim to improve household food production and thus enhance the availability and diversity of nutritious food in the households.

• WFP joined the annual 16 Days against Gender-Based Violence campaign, through a joint initiative with 46 other development partners, consisting of civil society organizations, government partners, international development organizations, embassy representatives and UN partners. A WFP all-staff event, held online, gathered staff in all locations to learn about GenderBased Violence and disabled women’s lives in Lao PDR.

• WFP completed a pilot training for 180 smallholder women to enhance their agricultural productivity for growing nutritious crops locally, in support of the school meals programme. The women came from six communities in two districts of Oudomxay Province, where school meals programmes operate with the support of WFP and the Government of Lao PDR. Following the training, WFP distributed a livelihood grant of USD 170 to each participant, to help participating women practice enhanced agricultural knowledge and skills, and also to address the gender inequalities in these rural communities.

Source: World Food Programme

Some 216 new Covid-19 cases and three new deaths attributed to Covid-19 have been reported nationwide over the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 139,244 including 597 deaths and 3,800 active cases.

Of the new infection, some 200 cases were classified as domestic infections and 16 as imported cases.

The local infections included 27 cases reported in Vientiane, 21 each in Xieng Khuang and Borikhamxay, 20 in Xekong and 16 each in Savannakhet and Attapeu, and 15 in Saravan.

The imported infections were documented in Vientiane with 14 cases and Borikhamxay and Savannakhet, one each.

Yesterday, some 123 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospitals nationwide.

As of Feb 14, over 4.8 million people, representing 65.68% of population in the country, have been vaccinated with at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to Deputy Director General of the National Center for Laboratory and Epidemiology, Ministry of Health, Dr Buaphanh Khamphaphongphan.

Meanwhile, over 4.2 million people, representing 57.71% of the population, have been administered with all recommended doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Source: Lao News Agency

Some 324 new Covid-19 cases and three new deaths attributed to Covid-19 have been reported nationwide over the previous 24 hours with the total reaching 137,044 including 577 deaths and 4,052 active cases.

Of the new infections, 321 were classified as domestic infections including 77 cases reported in Vientiane, 29 in Huaphan, 28 in Phongsaly, 26 in Xieng Khuang and 24 in Attapeu.

Deputy Director General of the Department of Communicable Diseases Control, Ministry of Health, Dr Sisavath Soutthanilaxay told a press conference on Tuesday that the new confirmed cases were detected among 3,794 people tested for Covid-19 yesterday.

On Monday, 224 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospitals nationwide

Source: Lao News Agency

– Over 70,000 people were affected by natural disasters, mostly floods, in Laos in 2021, in which 17 people were injured and 19 were killed.

Issues on extreme weather were the theme of the Disaster Management Committee Meeting for 2021, and a report on the Disaster Preparedness Plan for 2022, which took place online recently, local daily Vientiane Times reported, today.

The meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence, Chansamone Chanyalath.

Floods, drought, storms, landslides and crop pest invasions were recorded 65 times, affecting a total of 70,200 people in 15 provinces, 94 districts and 786 villages.

Chansamone stressed the need for central and local disaster management committees, to jointly work on the systematic implementation of emergency responses, as well as, incident reporting and damage assessment, he said.

However, he praised overall disaster management over the past year, saying, several successes had been achieved.

In terms of cooperation with ASEAN and internationally, a Memorandum of Understanding between China and Laos was signed on cooperation in disaster management.

Laos is also participating in the ASEAN Disaster Management Committee and has shared in regional and international remedial meetings, as well as, getting advice from international organisations on disaster prevention, control and mitigation.

Meeting participants were invited to share ideas and discuss solutions to outstanding issues and challenges, in this line of work, in the hope that a more concerted response to natural disasters would be rolled out in 2022, according to the report.–

Source: NAM News Network