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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US to lift restrictions on fully vaccinated international travellers in November
The Biden administration will lift travel restrictions starting in November on those from abroad who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, ending a travel ban implemented to limit the spread of the disease and reopening the United States to relatives who have been separated from families and employees from businesses.
The United States will admit fully vaccinated air travelers from the 26 so-called Schengen countries in Europe including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Greece, as well as Britain, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil.
Foreign travellers who provide proof that they are fully vaccinated before boarding a flight will be able to fly to the US starting in "early November", Mr Jeff Zients, the White House pandemic coordinator, said on Monday (Sept 20).
"International travel is critical to connecting families and friends, to fueling small and large businesses, to promoting the open exchange ideas and culture," he said.
"That’s why, with science and public health as our guide, we have developed a new international air travel system that both enhances the safety of Americans here at home and enhances the safety of international air travel."
The administration has restricted travel for foreigners looking to fly to the US from a group of European countries, Iran and China for more than a year. - Straits Times
BID cases jump from 64 last week to 92 yesterday
Brought-in-dead (BID) Covid-19 cases jumped drastically from 64 on Friday to 92 victims yesterday (Sept 20).
It was the eighth consecutive day Malaysia logged over 300 new deaths since Sept 13 when the country reported 413 deaths.
However, Covid-19 fatalities recorded on Monday declined to 301 from 376 deaths registered the previous day.
According to the Health Ministry's CovidNow portal, the fresh fatalities reported yesterday raised the country's Covid-19 death toll to 23,744.
As of Monday, the seven-day average of actual deaths in the country was 108.
Klang Valley reported the most number of deaths yesterday, with Selangor logging 130 deaths followed by 13 deaths in Kuala Lumpur.
Johor recorded 52 deaths, followed by Kelantan (23 deaths), Penang (22 deaths), Sabah (19 deaths), Perak (15 deaths), Sarawak (8 deaths), Kedah (6 deaths),
Terengganu (4 deaths), Pahang (4 deaths), Melaka (3 deaths) and one death each in Negri Sembilan and Perlis. - New Straits Times
Reopening of capital 'must be safe'
Welcoming tourists back to Bangkok hinges on three factors, including that 70% of its population are fully vaccinated, which could push the reopening near mid-November, according to the City Hall.
Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang said on Monday Bangkok was keen to restart its tourism business but for the health safety of its residents, the City Hall has decided any reopening will only go ahead after it has satisfied three criteria.
One criterion, Pol Gen Aswin said, is that 70% of the city's population must have received two doses of vaccines. Such a target is expected to be met around Oct 22 and some 7-14 days after that is when people's immunity has been built.
The tentative timeframe could see Bangkok's tourism industry resuming sometime in the first or second week of November.
Pol Gen Aswin said the second factor for reopening to proceed is if daily caseloads continue to drop and there are fewer Covid-19 patients in hospitals. In recent days, between 2,700-2,800 daily infections have been reported.
The final criterion is that there are fewer people with Covid-19 in hospitals, he said. - Bangkok Post
Duterte wants DOH probe on PRC's 'false positives'
President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night asked the Department of Health (DOH) to investigate the reported complaints about "false positives" Covid-19 tests conducted by the Philippine Red Cross (PRC).
During his Talk to the People, Duterte said he received reports that there are false-positive results in the swab testing processed in various molecular laboratories of PRC headed by Senator Richard Gordon.
"I also would like to ask. Are your testing facilities and equipment are really as good as you say they are? Because I have heard of many false-positive cases from your laboratories. Can you enlighten the Filipino people on this?" he said.
Duterte said he was informed that 44 out of 49 total hospital personnel tested positive in the swab tests processed by the PRC's molecular laboratory in Subic turned false positives after they have themselves retested in another facility.
He said 213 personnel of the Presidential Security Group tested positive in the processing of the PRC Manila but were tested negative in their confirmatory tests. - Philippine News Agency
Prime Minister calls on COVAX to quickly provide COVID-19 vaccines for Vietnam
Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chinh has asked the COVAX Facility to speed up the allocation of COVID-19 vaccines to Vietnam.
He was speaking during a teleconference with its Office Managing Director Aurelia Nguyen on Monday.
PM Chinh said he highly valued the role of COVAX in seeking supplies, coordinating and fairly distributing COVID-19 vaccines around the world, which has significantly contributed to controlling the pandemic.
He stressed that "COVID-19 is a global issue which requires a global approach and stronger and more effective international cooperation to prevent, roll back, and control the pandemic".
In the short term, it was necessary to support the equal access to COVID-19 vaccines and drugs via multilateral and bilateral mechanisms, he noted. - Vietnam News
Cambodia’s Delta Variant infections from SARS-CoV-2 virus surges close to 6,000
Cambodia’s Delta Variant infections from SARS-CoV-2 has spiked significantly to 5,751 as of Sunday, September 19.
As of September 10, the number of Delta Variant cases were just at 3,731 but has since the nine after that has surged past the five thousand mark.
From March 31 to September 9, the Cambodia Pasteur Institute has detected 5,751 cases of Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 infection in almost all provinces and cities across the country.
Sources familiar with the Delta Variant infections told Khmer Times that Phnom Penh was the most heavily infected.
This is followed by Banteay Meanchey, Oddar Meanchey, Siem Reap, Battambang and Preah Vihear, all front line provinces which face a deluge of Cambodian migrant workers returning from Thailand, Kandal, Tbong Khmum and Stung Treng provinces also have high infection rates.
The numbers have climbed steadily since the borders were reopened for returning migrant workers on 13 August. - Khmer Times
Police officers injured as PDF bombs checkpoint in Naypyitaw
People’s Defence Force (PDF) fighters in Naypyitaw’s Lewe Township bombed a security checkpoint on Monday morning, injuring at least two police officers in the latest of a series of recent attacks in the capital.
The PDF said in a statement that at least three officers were injured, while a witness told Myanmar Now she only saw two officers injured on their faces and chests.
After the explosion several police officers who had been standing away from the checkpoint ducked to the ground and pointed their guns at pedestrians, but did not shoot anyone, the witness said.
Neither the Lewe police station nor junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun answered calls seeking comment on the attack.
It is the fourth attack the local PDF has launched in Naypyitaw. In the first week of September, the group shot and killed a deputy sheriff in an assault on a checkpoint in Shan Su. It also claimed responsibility for killing a suspected military informant from the Maung Yan village tract in Ottara Thiri Township. - Myanmar NOW
Fall in positivity rate indicates good COVID handling: minister
Indonesia's positivity rate, which has dipped below 2 percent, indicates good COVID-19 handling in the country, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment and PPKM coordinator for Java-Bali, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, has said.
The positivity rate is the ratio between the number of positive cases of COVID-19 and the number of tests carried out. The COVID-19 Handling Task Force has pegged the positivity rate in Indonesia as of Monday (September 20) at 1.28 percent.
"Currently, Indonesia's positivity rate is below 2 percent. This indicates that COVID-19 handling has been running well and following the standards of the WHO," Pandjaitan said.
According to the minister, during the implementation of public activity restrictions (PPKM), despite the drop in cases, testing continued to be boosted so that the positivity rate could be lowered to below the WHO standard of 5 percent. - AntaraNews.Com