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.
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Connect@Changi converted into Covid-19 community care facility
A pilot facility to allow for international business meetings amid the pandemic has been converted into a facility to house Covid-19 patients instead, as Singapore steps up preparations for the coronavirus to become endemic here.
The Straits Times (ST) understands that Connect @ Changi is now a community care facility. Such facilities house people who test positive for Covid-19 but have mild symptoms and lower risk factors.
The facility is located at Hall 7 and 8 of the Singapore Expo.
When ST visited the area around Hall 7 of the Singapore Expo on Wednesday night (Aug 25), about 30 people were seen entering and leaving the building over a one-hour period. A few of them appeared to be uniformed staff of a local healthcare provider.
Two staff members told ST that the converted Connect @ Changi started taking in Covid-19 patients in recent days. - Straits Times
'Rise due to poor SOP compliance'
Poor compliance with Covid-19 preventive measures and low vaccination rates have been blamed for the surge in infections in several states in recent days. Cases have ranged in the thousands daily.
Epidemiologist Associate Professor Dr Malina Osman said the trend was expected to continue over the next few days.
"The situation in the other states has been predicted. Apart from the virus' rapid spread due to the Delta variant, the breach of standard operating procedures (SOP) and the relatively low vaccination coverage have compounded the situation.
"Informal information has highlighted the lack of vaccine supplies in most of the affected states," she told the New Straits Times yesterday.
Dr Malina said besides ramping up vaccination through the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme, the public had to continue to be vigilant and adhere to the SOP to safeguard themselves.
"Please stay at home if you have nothing to do outside and get vaccinated.”
"Hopefully, when more vaccines arrive by next month, the lack of supplies can be overcome and all those states will boast a high vaccination rate." - New Straits Times
School closures 'affecting development'
Many first-graders are missing out on their first-ever day at school as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, with concerns that delays to their schooling could harm their development and mental health.
The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) said many children who are supposed to be entering first grade have missed out on months of in-person instruction due to school closures across Thailand that were prompted by the nation's third and worst Covid-19 wave. As a result of the loss of development opportunity, seven in 10 young Thai children surveyed by Unicef showed signs of poorer mental health, it said.
"The first day of school is a landmark moment in a child's life. Most of us can remember countless minor details -- what clothes we wore, our teacher's name, who we sat next to. But for millions of children, that important day has been indefinitely postponed," said Unicef executive director Henrietta Fore.
"As classes resume in many parts of the world, millions of first graders have been waiting to see the inside of a classroom for over a year. Millions more may not see one at all this school term. For the most vulnerable, their risk of never stepping into a classroom in their lifetime is skyrocketing."
The first grade sets up the building blocks for future learning, she said, adding it is also a period when children learn to be independent, adapt to new routines, and develop relationships with others. In-person learning also enables teachers to identify developmental delays, mental health issues, and abuse that could harm a child's well-being.
The associated consequences of school closures -- loss of learning opportunity, mental distress, missed vaccinations, and heightened risk of dropping out, -- will be felt by many children, especially the youngest learners in critical development stages, Unicef's survey said. Last year, schools globally were closed for an average of 79 days.
However, for some 168 million students, after the pandemic began, schools were shut for almost the entire year. - Bangkok Post
More gov't-procured Pfizer vax arrives
A total of 362,700 doses of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine arrived in the country Wednesday night, as more life-saving shots are expected to be delivered in the coming weeks that would ensure stable supply until yearend.
Air Hong Kong flight LD456 carried some 262,080 doses, which were then transported to the PharmaServ Express cold-chain storage facility in Marikina City.
Some 50,310 doses were directly unloaded in Cebu City around 5 p.m. on the same day. The same number of doses will be delivered in Davao City Thursday.
Assistant Secretary Wilben Mayor, head of the National Task Force Against Covid-19 (NTF) sub-task force on current operations, said the country's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now in talks with Pfizer-BioNTech about its application for the full approval for their Covid-19 vaccine. - Philippine News Agency
Vietnam's GDP to suffer due to virus outbreak: WB report
Vietnam's GDP growth for the year has been readjusted to 4.8 per cent, a 0.2 per cent decrease compared to an earlier forecast made back in December 2020, said a World Bank report released on Tuesday.
According to the report, the country has been showing strong resilience during the pandemic with GDP growth for the first half of 2021 nearing pre-pandemic levels, with the industrial sector leading the charge on top of robust consumption and investment.
The readjustment, however, reflected how the social distancing measures and mobility restrictions, which have been put in place since the fourth outbreak of the virus (since late April) have affected economic activities.
Economic activities have seen drops with Purchasing Manager’s Index dropping below 50 per cent and retail sales in July falling by as much as 19.8 per cent, the largest drop since April last year. Unemployment has been forecast to rise in the near future with households and the informal sector bearing the brunt of the economic slowdown. - Vietnam News
Not adding up: Ministry and provincial C-19 figures don’t tally
The Health Ministry has admitted that it provides lower daily Covid-19 figures without taking into account provincial tallies which come in late.
This comes after continued confusion over the provincial figures with individual provincial totals seemingly not correlating to the national totals announced daily.
A simple tally of provided provincial figures seems to indicate a daily figure substantially higher than the official national total.
While COVAX commitment to Cambodia remains to cover 3.3 million people, according to World Health Organization Cambodia.
Health Ministry spokesman Hok Kim Cheng told Khmer Times yesterday that the reason for the discrepancy in the tally is due to time lapse in obtaining figures from the provinces.
“We are aware of this and are trying to find ways to provide the accurate daily figures,” he said. - Khmer Times
Myanmar coup leader considers shift to electoral system favoured by military
Myanmar’s army chief said on Monday that he is considering changing the country’s electoral system from the existing majoritarian model and toward a form of Proportional Representation (PR).
Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, who ousted the country’s elected civilian administration in a coup on February 1, made the remarks during a meeting in Naypyitaw with members of his military council, according to state-run media.
In accordance with the country’s military-drafted 2008 Constitution, Myanmar currently uses First Past the Post (FPTP), a system in which the candidate who receives the most votes is the winner of the parliamentary seat in question.
Min Aung Hlaing said that the PR system would be “all-inclusive” and allow for constituents’ voices to be better represented.
“It is necessary to consider the Proportional Representation—PR—system with all participants. It is necessary to amend the way representatives are elected and the election system. During its tenure, the government will make these amendments by coordinating with everyone,” Min Aung Hlaing said during the meeting. - Myanmar NOW
Health Ministry asks 6 provinces to stay alert for Delta variant
The Health Ministry has asked six Indonesian provinces to remain alert for the Delta variant of the coronavirus while, at the same time, improve their testing and tracing capability.
“At this moment, the Delta variant, which is highly contagious and has the potential to cause severity (severe infection), remains dominant in Indonesia,” the ministry’s spokesperson for COVID-19 vaccination, Dr. Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said at an online press conference on the enforcement of public activity restrictions (PPKM) in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The six provinces with the highest prevalence of the Delta variant are Aceh, North Sumatra, Lampung, West Java, East Nusa Tenggara, and Central Sulawesi, she informed.
Meanwhile, the three provinces of Southeast Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, and North Maluku have reported no incidents of the Delta variant, she said. - AntaraNews.Com