Coronavirus: Thailand tightens restrictions after record cases and casualties; Singapore to test fishmongers
- Thailand recorded more than 10,000 new cases for the first time despite an overnight curfew in Bangkok and several other provinces
- Singapore has closed the Jurong Fishery Port for deep cleaning amid concern that infections there have spread to a market in Chinatown
“I would like everyone to realise our necessity to impose stricter measures soon. We all may get affected and be inconvenienced in many ways,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha wrote on his Facebook page late on Friday.
Cases have been climbing particularly in Bangkok and surrounding provinces.
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The government imposed additional measures overnight including a ban on any gatherings and activities that can spread the virus, including anti-government rallies that have criticised Prayuth’s handling of the pandemic.
Violators face up to two years in prison and/or a fine of up to 40,000 baht (US$1,220).
Prayuth said the forthcoming additional measures seek to limit people’s mobility as much as possible, close down virtually all non-essential places and implement strict work from home. He said the government’s medical committee will discuss and study the lockdown measures in other countries carefully before approving the new ones.
To ease the pressure on hospitals, Prayuth said authorities are considering allowing people to test themselves at home with antigen test kits.
Thai health authorities on Wednesday said they would seek to impose limits on exports of the locally produced AstraZeneca vaccine because the country doesn’t have enough for its own needs. Production of the AstraZeneca jabs at a Thai factory has fallen short of its target, likely delaying the government’s plan to acquire a total of 61 million doses until next May.
“The government will speed up securing as many vaccines as we can from everywhere and we’ve never blocked the private sector from securing alternative vaccines,” Prayuth said on Facebook, addressing some of the criticism of his management of the crisis.
He earlier announced plans to allow the entry of vaccinated travellers without requiring them to quarantine on arrival starting in mid-October.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Thailand has reported 391,989 confirmed cases and 3,240 fatalities.
Singapore to test fishmongers
The city state has closed the Jurong Fishery Port for deep cleaning, and is investigating seven cases found there, the health ministry said on Saturday. Authorities will be testing fishmongers from all markets as a precaution, as the virus has already spread from the port to Hong Lim market in Chinatown, it said.
Singapore reported 60 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases on Saturday, of which 29 were linked to the karaoke cluster. The authorities have temporarily closed hundreds of nightlife venues to curb the spread of the virus and quarantined more than 2,000 people.
Lee didn’t specify when the donations will be made or the amount of doses it will share. He was speaking at an online gathering of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders on Friday. He also called for cooperation to prepare for the next pandemic.
“Covid-19 will not be the last, nor the most serious pandemic the world will face,” Lee said. “We need a more agile global governance and financing mechanism that can swiftly plug gaps in global health security.”
Singapore reimposes virus curbs after karaoke bar cluster setback
President urges ‘sense of crisis’ in hotspot Indonesia
Jokowi, as the president is known, called off a paid vaccination plan and told state officials not to travel overseas after wide public backlash, urging them to exercise “social sensitivity,” Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said in a statement. Only the foreign minister and those given special permission by the president can travel internationally, he added.
Indonesia added 51,952 Covid-19 cases with 1,092 people dying from the disease on Saturday. Brazil reported more than 45,500 infections on Friday, while US ones are climbing again.
“The president has emphasised that in this period of emergency curbs, surely there must be a sense of crisis throughout all ministries, institutions and leaders,” Anung said.
Photos of ministers spotted overseas and a plan by a state-owned company to sell vaccines to individuals were met with anger and questions on why entities are allowed to profit from the doses.
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While support for Jokowi has stayed high through the pandemic – a May survey showed 75.6 per cent approval – the virus resurgence has seen people voicing more discontent as infections and deaths surge amid an overwhelmed health care system.
The government will decide in the next few days whether to extend virus curbs imposed on the most populated islands of Java and Bali, said Luhut Panjaitan, minister for maritime and investment affairs, who oversees the measures. There’s been a significant drop in people’s mobility and there are signs that cases in Jakarta and Bali may start to flatten, he added.
All vaccines will remain free for individuals while the cost of doses procured for the private vaccination programme will be borne by employers as originally planned, Anung said.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin had bemoaned the private vaccination programme organised by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry as it was slower than the public campaign and shots were bought at too-high prices. It was due to the lag in the private scheme that the government decided to offer unused shots for sale to individuals.
Sydney business close during lockdown
Any retail deemed not “critical” would be forced to close across Sydney and its surroundings while those in hard-hit suburbs would be placed under stricter stay-at-home orders from midnight on Saturday, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told media in Sydney.
“It’s not good enough for us to tread water which is what we’re doing now; we’ve to some extent stabilised it, but we’re not managing to quash that curve,” Berejiklian said.
Authorities clamped down on people’s movements out of virus hotspots in the city’s southwest, banning locals from leaving their neighbourhoods unless they worked in emergency services or health care.
The tightening of restrictions, including a pause on all construction work in the city, came as more than 6 million residents completed their third week under stay-at-home orders.
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One new death from the virus was also recorded in New South Wales as daily cases climbed above 100, while the number of cases active in the community was remaining “stubborn”, Berejiklian said.
“I can’t remember a time when our state has been challenged to such an extent,” she said.
In Melbourne, as residents endured the second day of their fifth lockdown since the pandemic began, authorities tightened the already strict controls on travel from Sydney after the virus spread from the city.
“We’ve gone hard, and we’ve gone early to make sure that this lockdown is as short as possible,” Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley told media in Melbourne.
Malaysia posts over 12,000 new cases
Selangor accounted for the majority of cases, with 4,985 new infections, followed by capital city Kuala Lumpur at 1,740. Malaysia is struggling to curb new cases, which surpassed a record 13,000 for the first time on Thursday.
The country plans to ease restrictions for individuals who have been fully inoculated and may allow companies to be fully operational if their workers receive both doses of vaccine.
Almost 13 per cent of the population have been fully immunised, and the government aims to boost that to 60 per cent by end-September through an accelerated vaccine roll-out.
Reporting by Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg