Coronavirus: Indonesia’s Jokowi gets second Sinovac dose; Thailand arrests 89 foreigners for partying
- The Thai raid at a southern resort island is illegal under a national state of emergency to curb the spread of Covid-19, a policeman said
- Meanwhile, Indonesia’s president has received his second Sinovac jab, while South Korea is struggling to deal with a wave of church-linked infections
Police raided a party at a bar on a popular resort island in southern Thailand and arrested 89 foreigners for violating coronavirus regulations, officials said on Wednesday.
The Tuesday night raid on the Three Sixty Bar on Koh Phangan also netted 22 Thais, including one identified as the bar’s owner and another who sold drinks there, said police Col. Suparerk Pankosol, superintendent of the provincial immigration office.
He said the gathering was illegal under a national state of emergency declared last March to combat the coronavirus.
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Those arrested were from more than 10 countries, including the U.S., Britain, Switzerland and Denmark, Suparerk said. Photos of the raid distributed by police showed a dark, crowded room with casually dressed partygoers, almost all wearing face masks.
Koh Phangan in Surat Thani province is a popular destination for young backpacking travelers and is known especially for its all-night Full Moon beach parties. However, Thailand has barred virtually all tourists from entering the country since last April.
There have been 29 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Surat Thani out of a national total of 15,465. However, 11 of the 29 cases have been found in the last month as Thailand experienced a resurgence of the disease.
The penalty for violating the state of emergency is up to two years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to 40,000 baht (US$1,330). The bar owner and worker could also be charged with violating the Communicable Disease Act, punishable by a one-year prison term and a fine of up to 100,000 baht (US$3,330).
Suparerk said the arrested people were being held at the Koh Phangan police station, where investigators were preparing documents to charge them.
He said police had tracked the party plans on social media, where the bar was promoting the event to celebrate its fifth anniversary. Entry tickets were 100 baht (US$3.30), with food and drink extra.
Thailand on Wednesday reported 819 new coronavirus cases, taking its total infections to 15,465.
One additional death was reported, bringing total fatalities to 76. More than 700 of the new infections were in Samut Sakhon province, the epicentre of the most recent outbreak, the Covid-19 task force said at a briefing.
Indonesia’s Jokowi receives second Sinovac shot
Nearly 250,000 health care workers have been given the first shot since the programme started two weeks ago. The government is aiming for the number to increase to between 900,000 and 1 million daily, said Widodo in a statement on Wednesday.
Southeast Asia’s largest economy added 13,094 new cases in the 24 hours through midday Tuesday, taking the total to 1,012,350, the worst in the region. Some 336 people died and 10,868 recovered from the disease over the same period, the government said.
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Since the first week of this month, following the long Christmas and New Year holiday season, Indonesia has seen around 10,000 daily new cases with no signs of going down or flattening.
New coronavirus patients have reportedly had to struggle to secure hospital beds and ventilators, mostly on densely-populated Java Island, with some dying before having a chance to receive any medical attention.
The government aims to inoculate about 181.5 million people, which is close to 70 per cent of the population, by March next year.
South Korea struggles with Christian school-linked outbreaks
A total of 297 Covid-19 cases had been traced to six churches and mission schools run by a Christian organisation, senior health official Yoon Tae-ho told a briefing.
More than 100 cases were confirmed overnight among people linked to a church and its mission school in Gwangju, about 270km south of Seoul, officials said. Another 171 cases had been linked to an affiliated school in the city of Daejeon since January 17.
We deeply apologise for not responding earlier and for thinking the students could have had a cold when a student first developed fever
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said the Daejeon mission school outbreak appeared to have been spreading for some time before it was detected.
The Christian organisation responsible for the facilities, International Mission, was ordered to test everyone linked to 32 of its 40 schools and churches around the country.
The group apologised for not taking early measures to prevent the outbreak. It said that while some infected students may have been asymptomatic it had also failed to require students with cold-like symptoms to get tested.
“We deeply apologise for not responding earlier and for thinking the students could have had a cold when a student first developed fever,” it said in a statement.
The organisation said it would submit a full list of students and staff in its schools nationwide.
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Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun called on people affiliated with the affected facilities to get tested.
“The key is speed. I call on the authorities and local governments to make all-out efforts to identify related facilities and prevent further transmission,” Chung told a government briefing.
The KDCA reported 559 new cases as of midnight on Tuesday, up from 354 a day before, bringing the national tally to 76,429 infections with 1,378 deaths.
Vietnam locks down village after British strain detected
A village in northern Vietnam has been locked down after a local woman tested positive for the mutated British coronavirus strain on arrival in Japan, Vietnam’s Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.
She had tested negative two days before leaving Hanoi, so it is possible she caught the virus while in transit.
The woman is from Kim Dien Village on the outskirts of Hai Duong City, an hour away from Hanoi – 16 people she came into contact with have also been isolated, the ministry said in a statement.
Vu Duy Dang, chairman of the people’s committee in the commune where the woman’s family lives, said they have begun spraying and disinfecting the area.
Vietnamese authorities are taking all possible precautions, especially as the woman had recently been working in an industrial estate in Hai Duong City that employs thousands of people.
So far, the new strain of the virus has mainly occurred in Britain. Experts say the variant is more infectious, but it is unclear whether it is also more deadly.
Vietnam has seen no community transmissions of coronavirus in months, having officially recorded just 1,551 cases of Covid-19 along with 35 deaths.
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Japan's Prime Minister apologises for health system failing to keep up with coronavirus pandemic
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Jun Matsumoto, acting chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Diet Affairs Committee, and Kiyohiko Toyama, acting secretary general of Komeito, both admitted to visiting such bars last week.
The revelations come at a time the government is considering extending the state of emergency, which also entails asking restaurants and bars to shorten their opening hours, by about a month from its current scheduled end in February 7.
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“As we have asked the people to refrain from going out, I am extremely sorry,” said Suga at the House of Councillors’ Budget Committee.
Suga himself came under fire after taking part in two dinner gatherings in Tokyo in mid-December while the government was urging people to refrain from eating in large groups to contain the spread of the virus.
He later apologised over the gatherings, first at a luxury hotel with about 15 people and then at an upscale steakhouse with a total of eight people present.
Reporting by Bloomberg, Reuters, Kyodo, DPA
