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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About 100,000 people have entered Singapore from Malaysia via land and air VTLs
About 100,000 people have entered Singapore from Malaysia under a quarantine-free travel scheme that started on Nov 29.
Of these, about 55,000 people have entered via the Causeway under the land vaccinated travel lane (VTL), and some 44,000 people have entered via the VTL for air travellers from Malaysia.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said that as at Tuesday (Jan 18), about 43,000 of the land VTL travellers had entered after the scheme was expanded on Dec 20. The expansion had allowed Singapore citizens to enter Malaysia, and Malaysia citizens to enter Singapore.
A spokesman also said MTI will temporarily reduce the land VTL capacity and ticket sales by 50 per cent from Friday, as announced last month.
She added: "We will continue to monitor the situation closely and adjust the VTL (land) capacity, taking into account the public health situation in both countries and globally."
The number of travellers allowed to cross the Causeway was temporarily halved amid concerns over the spread of the Covid-19 Omicron variant. The move meant that there will be a maximum of 48 buses daily ferrying about 2,000 passengers between Singapore and Malaysia.
A similar capacity cut was also introduced for all air VTLs, along with stricter testing requirements.
The two designated bus operators for the land VTL, Transtar Travel and Causeway Link, reported brisk sales, even before the cut in quotas.
Competition for tickets has heated up further since, with all tickets for the land VTL sold out till Feb 28.
Malaysia's Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong said earlier this month that both countries will re-evaluate the current risks before deciding whether to proceed with the 50 per cent reduction in quota. – Straits Times
Covid-19: Infectivity rate going up, KL at 1.13
As of yesterday, Kuala Lumpur recorded the highest Covid-19 infectivity rate (Rt) in the country at 1.13.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, in a Facebook post, said six other states also recorded an Rt value above 1.00.
Negri Sembilan is now at 1.06, Kedah (1.04), Johor (1.03), Melaka (1.02), Sabah (1.01) and Selangor (1.00).
The national Rt value, he said, stood at 1.00. Other states registered an Rt value below the national average, namely Pahang with 0.98, Penang (0.96), Perak and Kelantan (0.95), Putrajaya (0.92) and Terengganu with 0.76.
The Rt value or the infectivity rate of the virus refers to the ability of a positive case to pass on the infection to others. – New Straits Times
PM rules out early election
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said on Thursday he has no plan to reshuffle the cabinet or call snap elections following the ouster of renegade MPs from the ruling Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP).
The premier also distanced himself from the party's decision on Wednesday night to expel secretary-general Thamanat Prompow and 20 other MPs loyal to him for causing division in the party.
Gen Prayut said the expulsion was an internal PPRP affair, adding he believed the party was trying to restore a sense of normalcy as much as possible.
"I'm not saying who is good or bad. Let their actions speak for themselves. The people will decide at the next election. I insist that I have no intention to change the cabinet line-up or dissolve the House. The law [on the new election system] isn't ready. Don't mix them up," he said.
When asked if Deputy Prime Minister and PPRP leader Prawit Wongsuwon had any message, he said: "Love and best wishes and mutual respect."
The ouster of Capt Thamanat and 20 others MPs, who have 30 days to find a new party or lose their MP status, came months after Capt Thamanat was sacked from the cabinet for engineering a plot to unseat Gen Prayut in last year's no-confidence debate. Capt Thamanat's move upset party members and has left an open sore in the ruling party ever since. – Bangkok Post
Exec urges to honour negative antigen test for int’l arrivals
Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion has recommended to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF) to allow negative antigen test results as a travel requirement for those arriving in the country.
“I thought the idea of antigen test prior to departure within 24 hours is good enough to provide comfort,” Concepcion said during the Go Negosyo’s Booster to the Max Townhall on Friday.
Although antigen tests are less sensitive than the gold standard reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), these can check if a person infected with the virus is contagious.
Concepcion added that antigen test “may not be as perfect as an RT-PCR” test, but an RT-PCR test taken too early or too late “may also not be effective”.
He said a negative antigen test result is now accepted in the United States.
“In our case when we leave America, we need to take an RT-PCR test 48 hours prior to departure. That is a bit of concern because the RT-PCR testing capacity here is at the maximum capacity, so some Filipinos going home may have a problem trying to get an appointment for this RT-PCR test,” he added.
The Go Negosyo founder said he also proposed to gradually phase out facility-based quarantine for international arrivals and shift to home-based quarantine instead.
Other countries such as Thailand and Switzerland have started to open up for travellers by removing the required quarantine upon arrival.
This move would help the country in reviving its tourism and airline industries, Concepcion added. – Philippine News Agency
Viet Nam to recognise vaccine passport from more countries, repatriate Vietnamese citizens for Tet
Viet Nam is seeking to recognise vaccine passports and certificate from more countries and will work harder to repatriate Vietnamese citizens from overseas for the Tet (Lunar New year) holiday, announced Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang during a press briefing in Ha Noi on Thursday.
While Viet Nam has recognised vaccine passports from 79 countries and territories, negotiations are underway to recognise other vaccine passports, especially those in a digital format.
“Citizens from these 79 countries who have been vaccinated with two doses will have their quarantine time reduced to three days,” the spokeswoman said at the briefing.
Vietnamese vaccine passports have been recognised by 10 partner countries; the US, Japan, the UK, Australia, India, Belarus, Cambodia, Philippines, Palestine and Maldives.
On December 23, the health ministry issued a vaccine passport template for Viet Nam. The foreign ministry then submitted this to diplomatic missions of countries in Viet Nam, as well as the diplomatic missions of Viet Nam in other countries, to promote the mutual recognition of vaccine passports. – Vietnam News
Administering of 3rd booster dose against COVID-19 in Cambodia finally takes off along with 4th dose
After languishing at about three million booster doses administered from the start in August last year until the end of 2021, the onset of Omicron and the availability of Pfizer Vaccines, albeit in limited supply, seems to be the impetus the Ministry of Health needed to get people to rush back to vaccination centres. The 3rd booster dose has now been administered to 5,073,265 people, including 2,587,619 females while the fourth dose which started on January 14 has seen a total of 204,730 getting it as of January 20.
To date, since vaccination first started on February 10, 2021, a total of 14,326,513 people have received their first dose of the vaccine while 13,728,089 have received their second dose to complete their two-course vaccine programme.
The age group which lags behind since August when vaccination for them started, the adolescents aged 12 to 18 still has not reached 100 percent although their targeted number was reduced by 40,000 to 1,827,348.
The adolescents take up rate for the second dose is also disappointing at 1,736,294 getting their second dose compared with the 1,815,910 who have received their first dose.
A total of 409,063 adolescents have received their first booster dose, vaccine dose number 3 as of January 20.
Total vaccination percentage out of the targeted 91 percent of 16 million population to be vaccinated stands at 89.54 percent, lagging behind the 91 percent target by 1.46 percent. – Khmer Times
Ousted lower house speaker back in his old job: sources
Nearly a year after his ouster as speaker of Myanmar’s lower house of parliament, it has emerged that T Khun Myat has since been reappointed to his former position.
Like every other parliamentary leader, T Khun Myat was removed from his job during last year’s coup. Until recently, however, it was unclear what had happened to the 72-year-old ethnic Kachin lawmaker from Shan State.
The first evidence that he was alive and well and still in the capital Naypyitaw appeared nearly two weeks ago, in a letter published in a regime gazette on January 7.
The letter, which formally denied a leave request by the director general of the Union Assembly, Kyaw Soe, was signed by T Khun Myat as speaker of the Pyithu Hluttaw.
Parliamentary sources have since confirmed that he has been in the position since early last year.
“Lower house speaker T Khun Myat is now overseeing all parliamentary proceedings, and also hosts staff meetings,” said a source who did not want to be named.
According to Aung Kyi Nyunt, a central executive member of the deposed ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), T Khun Myat was reappointed by the junta in April.
“The military council forced him to return to his former official residence. It seems he couldn’t resist the pressure because he was still in Naypyitaw,” said Aung Kyi Nyunt, who is also chair of the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), a body formed shortly after the coup by MPs elected in 2020. – Myanmar NOW
Indonesia's G20 Presidency to strengthen global economic cooperation
Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) highlighted the country's focus on bolstering cooperation with various global economic actors through the 2022 G20 Presidency.
Jokowi conveyed the statement while attending the World Economic Forum virtually from the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java Province, on Thursday.
The head of state noted that during the term of the G20 Presidency, Indonesia will intensify its relations with various international economic actors.
Furthermore, Jokowi harbours high expectations from global economic actors to come up with applicable ideas that can be suggested at the G20 Summit. On the same occasion, the president also invited global economic leaders in the intergovernmental forum to address the public's concern over global conditions in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic by taking concrete actions.
Jokowi noted that as the chairman of the 2022 G20, Indonesia is striving to make the intergovernmental forum to serve as a catalyst for inclusive global economic recovery.
"The theme of Indonesia’s 2022 G20 Presidency is 'Recover Stronger, Recover Together'. We will uphold partnership and inclusiveness as well as provide a breakthrough platform to make various transformation attempts in various sectors," he stated. – AntaraNews.Com