These are the top stories making the front pages of major newspapers from across Southeast Asia today.
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Police knock on doors to warn people about scammers after record number of cases in 2020
Station Inspector (SI) Chua Kwee Hee, 51, spends much of his time patrolling the Bishan neighbourhood and knocking on doors to warn residents about scams. The officer, who is part of the Community Policing Unit (CPU) at the Bishan Neighbourhood Police Centre, noted that although residents say they are aware of scams, many realise they have been scammed only after the fact. Last year, the number of scams hit a record high of 15,756, pushing the crime rate to its highest level since 2009, as victims lost more than $201 million to scams. That's why CPU officers educate the public about scams through house visits and neighbourhood patrols, often with anti-scam pamphlets and other materials. The Straits Times shadowed two police officers, SI Chua and police full-time national serviceman (NSF), Special Constable (SC) Abdul Raaziq Abdul Rashid, 23, one afternoon last month as they visited residents of a Housing Board block in Bishan. During the visits, they taught residents how to spot signs of online purchase scams and scam calls. SI Chua, who has worked as a CPU officer for seven years, said he has met residents who have fallen prey to online purchase and love scams. He remembers one woman who was concerned about a family member she believed was being duped by a "girlfriend" he met online. At the request of the "girlfriend", he sent her hundreds of dollars every month. SI Chua said: "I advised the woman to ask him to stop sending money and see what the response is from the other party. If a person really loves you, they won't ask you for money." Preventing people from getting into a situation like this is what keeps SC Abdul Raaziq motivated. The NSF, who has been on the job for six months, said: "Although it's a routine (job), if we can help most of the residents to avoid getting scammed, then it's an achievement." Online scams were more common last year, said the police, as more people stayed home due to the Covid-19 pandemic and carried out more online transactions. – The Straits Times
Malaysia reviewing use of AstraZeneca vaccine after EMA findings
Malaysia will review the use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine following the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) findings that it caused side effects which included "unusual blood clots". Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said that the government took note of the agency's announcement. "@JKJAVMY (the Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Special Committee) will deliberate the matter and decide if we should go ahead using AZ in our portfolio of vaccines. "Safety is paramount," he posted on Twitter. On Tuesday Marco Cavaleri, the EMA's head of vaccines, told Italy's Il Messaggero newspaper that in his opinion, "We can say it now, it is clear there is a link with the vaccine… But we still do not know what causes this reaction." The announcement comes on the heels of rare but serious blood clotting events in a small number of recipients in recent weeks, with more than a dozen European countries briefly suspending its use last month pending an EMA investigation. The EMA is also looking into 14 deaths among recipients of the jab that had been reported by March 22 and are related to unusual blood clots in the brain, known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), accompanied by a low platelet count. A high proportion among the reported cases affected were young and middle-aged women. The regulator however consistently said the benefits outweighed the risks as it investigates 44 reports of an extremely rare brain clotting ailment known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) out of 9.2 million people in the European Economic Area who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine. On Sunday, Khairy said the government has prepared several back up plans in the event the vaccine was found to be unsuitable for the country's use. However yesterday his co-chair to the committee said the country would proceed to use AstraZeneca because clinical data has shown the benefits of the vaccines outweigh the risks. Malaysia is scheduled to receive deliveries of about 6.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in May, for the use of 3.2 million people. Khairy also said he had received AstraZeneca's delivery schedule from the company's contract manufacturing plant in Thailand last week which confirmed delivery of the country's booking of vaccines would start in June. He also said the government's direct orders for 600,000 doses of the vaccine would be delivered then and subsequent deliveries would arrive monthly. – New Straits Times
Fresh virus outbreak in struggling Phuket
Phuket, which has been battling to rebound from its Covid-triggered economic doldrums, has been hit by a new bunch of infections, many linked to bars both locally and one in the Thong Lor area of Bangkok. The tourist-dependant island on Wednesday reported eight new cases, half of which were related to entertainment venues, said Kusak Kukiatkul, chief of the Phuket provincial public health department. Among the four patients linked to entertainment venues, one had visited a bar in Thong Lor and the local authority has ordered that 12 people who had close contact with that patient be quarantined and monitored. The other three had visited local bars. Four other cases, including a child aged nine, are local people, said Mr Kusak, and local health officials are trying to find out how and where they became infected. All eight patients have been hospitalised and are under close monitoring. Phuket governor Narong Woonciew said local health officials had already inspected the local bars visited by the three local patients and had ordered them to shut and be thoroughly cleaned. "We have ordered local police and officials to enforce tough laws on entertainment venues that violate Covid-19 preventive legal measures," Mr Narong said, adding that since Covid-19 erupted in early 2020, Phuket had ordered two bars to stay closed for five years, as well as fining and temporarily shutting several others. The governor urged people who had visited pubs and bars to self-quarantine, and go to the hospital immediately if they had unusual symptoms. He insisted that his provincial administration had stepped up measures to monitor travellers from other provinces entering the province either by land, sea or air. Meanwhile, Thanes Supornsahasrungsri, president of the Chon Buri Tourism Council, feared a new wave of infections there would affect the province's tourism sector despite no holidaymakers having yet cancelled their plans to visit. Mr Thanes asked the government to vaccinate 70% of health workers, tourism employees and other workers in Chon Buri. He said that while Pattaya is reporting 60% hotel occupancy for Songkran next week, the town still depended greatly on foreign tourists. The town's major foreign market, China, is currently not allowing people to travel abroad because of its lockdown policy, he said, while another major source of tourists, India, is dealing with its own escalating Covid-19 crisis. – Bangkok Post
WHO worried over PH health care capacity
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday said the Philippines was close to crossing the “red line” in exhausting its health care capacity to handle the COVID-19 pandemic after recording the highest number of new cases and fatalities in the Western Pacific Region recently. WHO officials said the current surge was due to multiple factors, including the emergence of “variants of concern” from the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the severe respiratory disease, the people’s lack of compliance to nonpharmaceutical interventions like minimum health protocols, and increased mobility. “We are concerned about the situation in the Philippines,” said WHO Regional Director Dr Takeshi Kasai. “We are concerned because the surge is really continuing and moving toward the so-called red line [when] the number of cases exceed or surpass the capacity of health care.” “And we know that once we cross that red line, we put health-care workers in a very difficult situation and once health-care workers start [getting the] infection, the health-care capacity goes down,” he said at a press briefing to mark World Health Day on Wednesday. Kasai stressed that it was “very, very important to avoid crossing this red line.” In its latest COVID-19 update, WHO noted that the Philippines reported 11,028 infections, the highest number of new cases recorded over a 24-hour period ending on April 5 among 37 countries in the Western Pacific. The Philippines also has the highest number of fatalities in the region with a cumulative total of 13,245 on that day, followed by China with 4,851, it said. The Department of Health (DOH) gave an even higher death toll of 14,059 on Wednesday after reporting 242 more had died. It reported fewer new cases, 6,414, but said that was due to the small number of samples for testing received by laboratories. The new infections brought the country’s total caseload to 819,164. The independent OCTA Research Group predicted it would hit 1 million by the end of the month. – INQUIRER.net
NA approves appointment of two Deputy Prime Ministers
The National Assembly (NA) on April 8 approved a resolution ratifying the Prime Minister’s proposal on the appointment of two Deputy Prime Ministers. The procedure was conducted as part of the 14th National Assembly’s ongoing 11th session. Le Minh Khai and Le Van Thanh officially became new Deputy PMs for the 2016-2021 tenure after the resolution was passed by the 14th legislature with “yes” votes from 455 out of 459 participating lawmakers, equivalent to 94.79 percent of the total number of NA deputies. Khai, born in 1964, is a member of the Party Central Committee in the 12th and 13th tenures, Secretary of the 13th-tenure Party Central Committee, and deputy to the 14th NA. Thanh, born in 1962, is also a member of the Party Central Committee in the 12th and 13th tenures, and deputy to the 12th legislature. At the working session, NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue said he believed that Khai and Thanh will make greater efforts to excellently fulfil tasks in their new posts assigned by the Party, State and people. The 11th session, the last sitting of the 14th NA, is scheduled to wrap up later on April 8. – Viet Nam News
Shocking discovery of up to 50 COVID-19 positive cases at a garment factory at Khan Meanchey
The Ministry of Health has reportedly carried out mass testing at a garment factory in Khan Meanchey and discovered up to 50 workers infected with COVID-19. The testing and discoveries were made at the “Din Han” garment factory located on Duong Ngiep 2 Street, Thmey Village, Sangkat Stung Meanchey III, Khan Meanchey, Phnom Penh. The Governor of Phnom Penh, Khuong Sreng has called on all workers working in this factory to come and take samples for urgent inspection by today. Failure to do this will result in them being barred from work. There are an estimated 2,562 workers working in the factory. Phnom Penh’s O’Russey Market registers up to 50 COVID-19 positive cases last night. Elsewhere, more than 50 traders and security guards at O’Russey Market were tested positive for COVID-19 last night, forcing the authorities to call on other traders to continue to come forward and get tested immediately. Phnom Penh Capital Hall also appealed to the people who knew all the traders of O’Russey Market, to stay away from the market until the situation of infection in this market has been brought under control. According to the Phnom Penh Municipal Administration, since the outbreak of the virus at O’Russey Market, more than 100 security staff, vendors, and their families have been diagnosed with COVID-19. – Khmer Times
Another 20 killed in major crackdowns, as regime reaches a new milestone
Regime forces killed at least 20 people in Sagaing and Bago regions on Wednesday, pushing the death toll from two months of crackdowns on anti-coup protests past a new threshold. Added to figures compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the latest deaths confirmed by Myanmar Now late Wednesday night bring the total number of civilians killed by the regime since it seized power on February 1 to 606. Most of the fatalities reported on Wednesday were in the Sagaing region town of Kalay, where local medical teams confirmed that a day-long crackdown on the town’s Tarhan protest camp had left at least 11 people dead. This figure is up from eight reported dead earlier in the day and is expected to continue to rise. “They were shooting at every shadow, positioning themselves on every corner and every street that led to the protest camp,” a Kalay resident said of the junta’s armed forces. “They were hiding in ditches and lying-in ambush,” he added, noting that non-protesters were likely among those killed. Local media reported that three of the 11 people killed were not involved in protest activities. An unknown number of arrests were also made. Photos circulating on social media show several people with their eyes blindfolded and their hands tied behind their backs in the custody of soldiers. Meanwhile, in another part of Sagaing, seven men were shot dead by regime forces in the town of Taze on Wednesday afternoon, according to a member of a local relief group who spoke to Myanmar Now. The relief worker said he was unable to provide further details about the situation in the town because his team was still trying to rescue wounded people from the protest site at the time of reporting. – Myanmar NOW
Over 9.1 million Indonesians get COVID-19 jab
A total of 9,187,757 people in Indonesia have received their first shots of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Wednesday, an increase of 212,391 compared to the day before, according to the government's COVID-19 task force. Data from the task force shows the number of people receiving their first and second doses of the vaccine increased by 169,229 to 4,547,580 on Wednesday compared to the previous day. The government has set a target of inoculating 40,349,049 people in the first and second phase of the national vaccination program. The first and second phases of the vaccination program are targeting healthcare workers, state officials, public service officers, senior citizens, government employees, teachers, lecturers, traders, and religious figures. The government has rolled out a nationwide vaccination program since January 13 this year to stem the spread of the coronavirus. According to the Health Ministry's estimates, it will take 15 months to vaccinate about 70 percent of the country's total population to build herd immunity against COVID-19. By March, 2022, the government is targeting to inoculate at least 181.5 million people, including 1.3 million paramedics and 17.4 million public sector workers, in 34 provinces, the Health Ministry's spokesperson for the vaccination program, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, stated recently. According to Tarmizi, the first phase of the government's immunization program has been divided into two periods: January-April, 2021 and April, 2021-March, 2022. – AntaraNews.Com