These are the top stories making the front pages of major newspapers from across Southeast Asia today.
Get up to speed with what’s happening in the fastest growing region in the world.
Coronavirus patient in ICU, first such case in Singapore in more than 2 weeks
A coronavirus patient is in critical condition in the intensive care unit, the first such case here in more than two weeks, according to an update by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Monday night (Aug 3). The last time there was a Covid-19 patient in ICU was July 13. Since then, no patients have been reported to need such care until Monday. Monday's ICU case is one of the 115 coronavirus patients who are still in hospital. Together with the 5,730 still recuperating in community facilities, Singapore now has 5,845 active cases. These make up 11 per cent of the 53,051 cases that Singapore has recorded to date. With 253 cases discharged on Monday, 47,164 have now fully recovered from the disease and been discharged. MOH also announced 226 new coronavirus cases on Monday, including one community case - an inmate who was admitted to Changi Prison Complex on July 30. – The Straits Times
Briton jailed for stabbing husband to death in Langkawi
A British woman was jailed for three-and-a-half years on Monday after tearfully admitting she stabbed her husband to death during a fight in Langkawi. Samantha Jones killed John William Jones in 2018 in their house during a row in the early hours of the morning, which her lawyer said came after years of domestic abuse. The 52-year-old admitted "culpable homicide", which is roughly equivalent to manslaughter, and was handed the jail term and ordered to pay a fine of RM10,000. She had initially been charged with murder, which carries a mandatory death sentence, but prosecutors agreed to the lesser charge. During a hearing here, Jones pleaded guilty and then wept as a prosecutor showed the High Court the murder weapon and photos of the crime scene. In mitigation, her lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo, said Jones had long suffered from physical and emotional abuse meted out by her husband, who was an alcoholic and had a fierce temper. The fight began on Oct 18, 2018, after Jones's husband kicked her when she was lying in bed in the early hours of the morning, the lawyer said. Jones fled to the kitchen but he followed and a fight began, during which she stabbed him with a knife. – New Straits Times
Education ministry to push for full school opening
The Ministry of Education will this week ask the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) to allow 4,500 schools nationwide to open fully. Education Minister Nataphol Teepsuwan said on Monday he will this week propose the full onsite school reopening to the CCSA for consideration since Thailand has reported no community transmissions for a long period of time with many lockdown measures eased. The minister said parents thought that the current partial re-opening, particularly the alternate-day arrangement for attendance, might result in interrupted study for their children. If the CCSA approves the full-scale school reopening, the minister stressed that all schools must comply with measures imposed by the Public Health Ministry such as compulsory face coverings, hand washing using alcohol-based hand sanitisers, and checking the body temperature of students before they enter the premises. Students who have a fever are encouraged to stop going to school until they fully recover, he suggested. – Bangkok Post
Researchers nearly finished with clinical trials for COVID-19 herbal medicines
A research team at a temporary COVID-19 hospital at Wisma Atlet Kemayoran in Central Jakarta has reportedly managed to recruit its 90th and final subject for its clinical trials of new herbal medicines for COVID-19 patients. Seventy-two of them have completed the trials so far. The team, comprising representatives from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the Association of Indonesian Doctors for the Development of Traditional and Herbal Medicine (PDPOTJI), among others, is currently developing two herbal medicines intended to boost the immune systems of COVID-19 patients. Both medicines are said to be "immunomodulator drugs" that stimulate or suppress components of the immune system, including both innate and adaptive immune responses. The medicines are not vaccines, nor are they a replacement for adhering to proper COVID-19 health protocol. "The research team is collecting data that will be handed down to the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency [BPOM] as the regulator,” LIPI said in a statement on Monday. – The Jakarta Post
Metro Manila, 4 other areas back on lockdown
More than 27 million Filipinos in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces go back into lockdown on Tuesday after a warning from exhausted health workers that the Philippines is losing the battle against the new coronavirus. Heeding the health workers’ warning, President Rodrigo Duterte late on Sunday directed local officials in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite and Rizal to enforce modified enhanced community quarantine in their provinces anew for the next two weeks, and to see to it that cities, towns and villages are free of the new coronavirus that causes the severe respiratory ailment COVID-19. In an open letter to the President on Saturday, 80 medical groups representing 80,000 doctors and a million nurses said they were exhausted and falling ill, and warned that the health-care system would collapse without tighter controls. More than 5,000 medical workers have contracted the virus, including 500 in the past week, Department of Health (DOH) figures show. Thirty-eight have died so far. The health workers urged the government to place Metro Manila and outlying provinces back on enhanced community quarantine, or lockdown, for two weeks to give them “timeout” to recover from exhaustion and allow the government to recalibrate its response to the pandemic. – INQUIRER.net
Seventh person dies of COVID-19 complications
Another person has died in Vietnam of COVID-19 related complications, taking the total amount of fatalities to seven. The latest death is a 62-year-old woman from Hoa Vang, Danang, who had a 10-year history of kidney problems. She was being treated at the Department of Renal Medicine at Danang Hospital from July 18 to July 27 when she tested positive for coronavirus. The woman was transferred to Hue Central Hospital for treatment on July 30 and the following day suffered shortness of breath, loss of appetite and had problems communicating with people. In the days that followed her condition worsened and she needed to be placed on a ventilator machine to help her breath. She also suffered multiple organ failure. She suffered a cardiac arrest in the early hours of Tuesday morning and attempts to resuscitate her failed. Doctors say the cause of death is end-stage renal failure, septic shock, multiple organ failure and COVID-19. She is the seventh person to succumb to COVID-19 related issues in the past five days. – Viet Nam News
Police warn Rong Chhun’s supporters to cease protests
Phnom Penh Municipal police warned a group of Rong Chhun’s supporters on August 3 that they would face legal action if they continued to protest to demand the release of the union leader, who was charged days before for distorting information regarding the country’s border. Some 70 police and military police officers and district security guards set up a barricade the same day to prevent a rally organized by about 30 of Chhun’s supporters in front of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. The court placed the outspoken unionist in pretrial detention on August 1 after charging him with incitement to commit a felony for comments he made to the media about demarcation posts along the border between Cambodia and Vietnam. – The Cambodia Daily