These are the top stories making the front pages of major newspapers from across Southeast Asia today.
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S'pore firms confident despite Omicron wave, plan to make hybrid work permanent
Companies here are taking the surge in Covid-19 cases fuelled by the Omicron variant in their stride as they remain confident of their ability to stay flexible and responsive to the fluid pandemic situation.
This is backed by the hybrid working practices that most workplaces have put in place since the start of the pandemic and which they have continually refined over the past two years, according to industry players and experts interviewed by The Straits Times (ST).
As at Jan 1, half of the workforce who can work from home may return to the workplace, subject to safe distancing measures.
Despite having more of their corporate and administrative staff return to the office, some businesses have not found their workforce to be significantly affected by the virus.
IHH Healthcare Singapore chief executive Prem Kumar Nair said: "We have not seen a significant increase in the number of staff affected by the recent spike in Omicron cases, compared to our previous experience with the Delta variant."
He attributed this to factors such as strictly adhering to safe distancing measures and rostered routine testing, even as 50 per cent of his company's back-end workforce continues to return to the office.
Business continuity measures such as having split teams and tailoring hybrid work arrangements to suit business needs have generally helped companies keep going despite the potential road bumps posed by the virus. – Straits Times
Rise in Covid-19 cases inevitable due to Omicron
A surge in Covid-19 cases is inevitable due to the Omicron variant.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, however, said the public should not be alarmed as the country's vaccination rate was high, among others.
He said the public should look at other important indicators such as hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions.
"The number of Covid-19 cases will increase. However, it will be low-severity cases with 99 per cent of them under Categories 1 and 2," he said at a press conference following the launch of the national Covid-19 immunisation programme for children (PICKids) at the Tunku Azizah Hospital, here, today. Khairy said Malaysia was better prepared to deal with Covid-19 cases now, adding that the ministry had created a better hospital admission system and plans to use antiviral medicines for patients.
"There will be a clinical care pathway for those who are at risk such as the immunocompromised and the comorbid.
"So that the system prioritises those who are most in need while those with asymptomatic or mild symptoms can observe home care and quarantine."
Khairy also said seriousness of the cases had differed from last year's Delta wave when there was a correlation between the number of cases and the seriousness of infection.
"Last year when the cases went up, the admissions, ICU occupancy and deaths also went up.
"Last year the system was so overburdened that the system collapsed. But now we can see a decoupling between the seriousness of infections and number of cases."
The ministry reported 5,736 cases on Wednesday and 5,720 cases on Thursday. – New Straits Times
Students' exam data sold on web
The Council of University Presidents of Thailand (CUPT) on Thursday admitted that the personal information of over 23,000 students who took part in last year's examinations was leaked and sold on the internet by hackers.
The information, which included the students' names, identity card details and grades, was stolen from the Thai University Central Admission System (TCAS) and sold on the dark web, the CUPT said.
The stolen information belongs to students who took part in the third round of university admissions examination, which was held around May last year.
The stolen information is part of 826,250 files in the TCAS database which were entered into a computer system during the third round of examinations.
The files could have been exported in May last year by a university staff member, who was authorised to access such data to rank applicants based on the university's selection criteria, the CUPT said.
Last year's admissions database – known as TCAS64 – was shut down in December. This year's version, TCAS65, has been upgraded to ensure students' personal information is better protected.
"CUPT apologises for the impact on personal information. In light of the incident, it is reviewing the database and working procedures with the support of the National Cyber Security Agency [NCSA]," it said.
The council also said it will file a complaint with the police and pursue legal action against anyone involved in the leak. – Bangkok Post
Slowdown of inflation in January '22, 'positive news': Diokno
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno described as “positive news” the continued deceleration of the domestic inflation rate, which slowed further to 3 percent in January 2022 from the previous month’s 3.2 percent.
“It supports the narrative that inflation is on its downward trajectory,” he told journalists in a Viber message on Friday.
The rate of price increases in the first month this year is the lowest since the 3 percent in November 2020, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
National Statistician Dennis Mapa, in a virtual briefing Friday, said they have yet to release the figure for core inflation, which excludes the volatile food and oil items, for January 2022 since they are still coordinating with the BSP on this, following the rebasing of the consumer price index (CPI) base year from 2012 to 2018.
The PSA rebased the CPI base year starting last January to make the report more updated, he said.
He said the source weights for the CPI would now be based on the 2018 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES).
In a presentation, the PSA said the change in the base year for CPI is done every six years. – Philippine News Agency
140 tonnes of aquaculture products export to China through Mong Cai
Trading activities at the Hai Yen Km3+4 temporary pontoon bridge in Mong Cai City resumed on February 3 as customs staff returned to work after Tet holidays.
On Thursday morning, 70 trucks crossed carrying aquaculture products, including 62 lobster trucks, five crab trucks and three sweet snail trucks.
The trucks were loaded with 140 tonnes of produce from ten businesses.
They are all exporting to China via the Hai Yen Km3+4 temporary pontoon bridge in Mong Cai City, Quang Ninh.
Authorities at Mong Cai City and Dongxing City, China held talks to adjust the 2022 Lunar New Year holiday schedule and customs clearance activities at border gates to tackle congestion issues.
Trading activities at border gates in Mong Cai City were extended until the end of January 31. It is expected that import and export activities at Bac Luan 2 Border Gate will resume on February 5.
Authorities here have coordinated to ensure the smooth clearance of goods. – Vietnam News
Cambodia reports no new COVID-19 mortalities in a month
Cambodia’s impressive recovery from COVID-19 since new measures were announced in November has been impressive with zero deaths reported for a month. The death toll remained at 3,015 and this stellar record was mired only by the rising number of Omicron cases in the country, including community infections.
Of the 46 new COVID-19 cases discovered Wednesday and reported by the Ministry of Health yesterday, all 46 cases were classified as Omicron variants. Of the 46, 41 were locally transmitted while 5 others were imported.
This is a reverse trend as in the past, the highest number of Omicron variant infections were imported cases whereas now, they are community cases.
In total, as of Wednesday, February 2, Omicron cases totalled 1,031 and of this, community infections accounted for more than at 547 community cases.
The first COVID-19 case was detected in Cambodia in late January 2020 in Preah Sihanouk province whilst the first Omicron case was detected on December 14, 2021 on a Cambodian female who had returned from Ghana.
Khmer Times has also reliably learned that some COVID-19 infected patients are self-treating at home while quarantining themselves and taking the traditional Chinese medicine Lianhua Qingwen capsules or western medication such as Molnupiravir.
Reports from infected individuals have emerged that these infected people had shown mild symptoms and had self-tested at home. The medications successfully helped treat the patients who recovered in an average of five days. – Khmer Times
More than 500 houses torched in two Pale villages
Junta troops burned down an entire village in Sagaing Region’s Pale Township on Monday and destroyed half of another, according to local sources.
A resident of Mwe Tone, one of the villages that came under attack, said that a raid by around 150 soldiers began shortly after two military helicopters landed nearby at around 10am.
Residents of the village of roughly 250 households were taken completely by surprise, forcing them to flee without food or other necessities, the 48-year-old man told Myanmar Now.
“We had to start running right way. They just rushed into the village and opened fire. We didn’t even dare to look back, we just ran,” he said.
The soldiers immediately went through all of the abandoned homes, taking whatever they could find, before setting the entire village on fire later that day, he added.
“We’re just ordinary farmers. We weren’t fighting them. They just destroyed everything for no reason,” said the man.
According to the man, he lost about 10m kyat ($5,600) worth of property in the attack, including his two-storey house, two motorcycles, two bicycles, farm machinery, and more than 6,000 litres of sunflower seeds.
Another resident said that the junta troops also destroyed everything that she owned.
“I will never forgive them for this. I want them to feel what we had to feel. They have been putting everyone through this hell. It’s like they just want to shoot and kill everyone they see,” said the 60-year-old woman. – Myanmar NOW
Current wave to be steeper than Delta surge: ministry
The current surge in COVID-19 cases could potentially be higher than the peak of the second wave that occurred in July 2021, the Health Ministry has estimated.
"We are still learning (by) seeing the experiences of various countries. Our country will probably be a little higher (in terms of cases) compared to during the peak of the Delta variant," Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono said here on Thursday.
He made the statement in response to reporters' inquiries about the peak of the third wave.
He said public compliance with the health protocols would affect the trend of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia.
The current trend of increasing COVID-19 cases cannot be separated from the influence of the Omicron variant, which is characterized by its rapid and extensive transmission, he added.
However, he assured that the government is ready to control the spike in cases, given its experience in dealing with the Delta wave last year.
Harbuwono stated that in July 2021, around 57 thousand cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant were recorded in the country. Meanwhile, the Omicron variant is currently estimated to be responsible for 100–150 additional cases per day, he informed.
He urged patients with mild symptoms to self-isolate at home so that hospitals can cater to those with moderate and severe symptoms. – AntaraNews.Com