Disasters and emergency response
How Asean’s Covid-19 recovery measures are missing opportunities for a green future
More than a year after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency, the – a region with a combined GDP of US$9.34 trillion and a population of more than 650 million – has not recovered from the global economic tumult ...
Melinda Martinus and Sharon Seah
Thailand tightens measures as daily cases cross 10,000
Thailand has tightened coronavirus restrictions and warned of further measures as daily cases surpassed 10,000 and the death toll hit a record 141 on Saturday despite an overnight curfew in Bangkok and several other provinces. The surge since April has overwhelmed hospitals, strained the economy and ...
Chalida Ekvittayavechnukul
Vietnam puts southern region in lockdown as surge grows
Vietnam put its entire southern region in a two-week lockdown starting midnight Sunday, as confirmed COVID-19 cases exceeded 3,000 for the third day in a row. The lockdown order includes the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City metropolis, the country’s financial and economic hub with ...
AP News
As Thailand hit by its worst COVID outbreak, economic risks rise
Thailand risks fueling its decade-high unemployment rate and household debt with the imposition of lockdown-like measures to contain the deadliest Covid outbreak to hit the nation. The greater Bangkok area, accounting for about 50% of Thailand’s gross domestic product, will shutter shopping malls, spas, massage and ...
Suttinee Yuvejwattana and Randy Thanthong-Knight | Bloomberg
NESDC set to table new relief measures
The National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) plans to table before the cabinet on Tuesday remedy measures for those affected by the strict lockdown measures that took effect on Monday, says a cabinet source who requested anonymity. The remedy is to be funded by the ...
WICHIT CHANTANUSORNSIRI
United States Plans to Donate Vaccines to Thailand
The President of the United States announced a plan to deliver 80 million safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines to countries in need around the world. Thailand will receive a share of safe and effective vaccines from this world-wide donation. The United States is sharing these ...
U.S. Embassy Bangkok
Deadly Myanmar mine disaster caused by poor planning, say data sleuths
A detailed analysis of satellite and remote-sensing data has uncovered poor conditions at the Wai Khar jade mine in northern Myanmar, where a landslide last July killed more than 170 people. The international team of authors behind the study1 — the first to rigorously document a mining accident ...
Andrew Silver
COVID-19 Cases Surge in Southeast Asian Countries, as Officials Call for Renewed Attention to Prevention
With COVID-19 infections and deaths rising in Myanmar and its neighbors, deposed national leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called on citizens in the military-ruled country to strictly observe all precautions aimed at preventing the pandemic’s spread, her lawyers said on Monday. Following a court hearing ...
Reported by RFA’s Myanmar, Lao, Vietnamese, and Khmer Services. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane, Max Avary, Viet Ha, and Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Richard Finney.
CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19)As Phuket opens, Bangkok, 9 provinces face new restrictions
Things are changing next week in the level of severity of the rules and restrictions for Covid-19 safety and control. No, we’re not talking about loosening all the restrictions in the Phuket Sandbox reopening, we’re referring to partial lockdowns in Bangkok and 9 other provinces around Thailand ...
Neill Fronde
Thailand greenlights quarantine-free travel model for Phuket
Thai authorities on Tuesday (Jun 22) greenlighted a pilot model for quarantine-free travel to ultra-popular beach destination Phuket, a first step towards the tourist-hungry kingdom’s goal of resuscitating its pandemic-battered economy. Thailand has imposed strict restrictions on visitor arrivals in order to stem COVID-19 infections, but ...
