Health & Environment
Health workers will be some of the first to receive the jabs in the first phase of the drive, which aims to inoculate some 300 million people starting on Saturday.
The Indonesian firm began life 130 years ago in the Dutch colonial era. Several world class vaccines and a few name changes later, it is fighting both Covid-19 and a sceptical public.
Roads were packed before the order came into effect at midnight on Tuesday, with some rushing to stock up on groceries or spend time with family before travel was banned.
The inclusion of social media influencer Raffi Ahmad, who has been criticised for not wearing a mask, in Indonesia’s first set of inoculations has been panned online.
How will Malaysia’s lockdown affect daily life, what happened to its earlier success and is there a political angle to all of this?
The emergency could last until August 1 and will give PM Muhyiddin Yassin the ability to govern by fiat, helping to preserve his political future.
Filipinos will not be able to choose which vaccine they get, and trust over vaccine safety may be another hurdle as the country looks to inoculate more than half the population by 2021.
The country’s 13 states and three federal territories will be put under some form of lockdown starting Wednesday. All inter-state travel is banned.
India aims to roll out its Covid-19 vaccines to its neighbours to boost its regional importance, but analysts say New Delhi must tread cautiously.
The country recorded 3,027 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, its highest ever total, prompting experts to recommend swift action.
Company called Odorate launches home-use kit that measures a person’s smell and provides potential solutions to the problem
Since it sealed itself off from the world last March, Vietnam has recorded just over 1,500 Covid-19 infections – but many of its nationals are stranded abroad, facing job and income losses as well as scanty information about repatriation.
Just 30 per cent of businesses are still operating in the country after a long initial Covid-19 lockdown, with more suffering expected to come.
Experts say efforts to register workers and trace infections are being undermined by smugglers taking advantage of migrants desperate for work.
Diplomatic cables sent soon after the first Covid-19 cases emerged in Wuhan – and obtained by This Week in Asia – credited Chinese officials for releasing ‘timely and open general information’.
Sinopharm and Sinovac have said they will request this week that their vaccines be cleared for emergency use, according to Manila’s ambassador to China.
Police access to the programme has stirred controversy, as the Singapore government has previously stressed it would be used only for coronavirus contact tracing.
Knives are out for the Covaxin vaccine after it was granted emergency approval before final-stage human trials had been completed.
Health officials’ attempts to quell Thais’ confusion over vaccination drive leaves many questions unanswered.