These are the top stories making the front pages of major newspapers from across Southeast Asia today.
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New Covid-19 measures slated to start on Feb 25 postponed due to infection surge
The implementation date for changes to existing Covid-19 safe management measures will be revised, with a new date to be announced shortly, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Thursday (Feb 24).
This is due to the current surge in daily cases, and the "extensive work" involved in going through the different rules in different settings, said the ministry in a statement.
The current rules will remain in place in the meantime, it added.
The multi-ministry task force (MTF) on Covid-19 had announced on Feb 16 that existing safe management measures (SMMs) will be streamlined to make it easier for everyone to understand and comply with.
It would have entailed, among other things, allowing groups of five to visit homes at any one-time, social gatherings of up to five people at workplaces, adjustments to vaccination-differentiated SMMs (VDS) for unvaccinated children aged 12 years and below, and the resumption of team sports.
"As this streamlining exercise involves extensive amendments to existing regulations that have accumulated over the past two years, we announced then that the changes will be implemented in phases, on Feb 25 and March 4, 2022," said MOH in its statement on Thursday.
"Given the current surge in daily cases, and the extensive work involved in going through the detailed rules across different settings, the MTF has reviewed the matter and has decided to consolidate and streamline the SMMs in one go instead." – Straits Times
Daily Covid-19 cases breach 30k
Malaysia recorded 31,199 new Covid-19 infections yesterday.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 99.38 per cent of the total cases reported yesterday were in Categories 1 and 2 while less than one per cent from Categories 3 to 5.
"A total 31,005 cases are in Categories 1 and 2 while the remaining 194 cases are in Categories 3 to 5.
"From the total, 31,080 are local infections while 119 are imported cases," he said in a statement today. Out of the total cases in Categories 3 to 5; 92 cases are those aged 60 and above; 91 cases have comorbidities; and three are pregnant women.
A total 45 are unvaccinated, 108 cases have completed their vaccination but did not take booster shots, and 41 cases have taken their booster shots, he said.
"Another 153 cases in Categories 3, 4 and 5 are either non-vaccinated, incomplete vaccination, or did not receive booster shots," he added.
Meanwhile, 20,399 individuals were discharged yesterday after recovering from Covid-19.
There are 305 cases in Intensive Care Units (ICU) where 118 are confirmed Covid-19 while the other 187 are suspected.
As for ventilators, 191 are ventilated with 72 confirmed Covid-19 cases while the remaining 119 are under investigation, he said.
There are 506 active Covid-19 clusters with 14 new ones detected yesterday.
As for the infectivity rate (Rt), it dropped nationwide to 1.13 yesterday compared to 1.15 the day before. – New Straits Times
Thailand reports record 23,557 new Covid cases
The Public Health Ministry on Thursday reported a record daily increase of 23,557 new coronavirus infections during the previous 24 hours, as the kingdom deals with an outbreak driven by the Omicron variant.
The number of daily Covid-related deaths, however, was 38 – well below the 184 fatalities reported on Aug 13 last year, when Thailand recorded its previous daily record of 23,418 infections.
A World Health Organization official said last month there is evidence the Omicron variant causes milder symptoms than previous variants and while case numbers have surged to records in many places, hospitalisation and death rates have often been lower than in earlier phases of the pandemic.
Up to now, about 69% of people in Thailand have been fully vaccinated, compared with about 12% at the end of August.
There are currently just below 181,000 people receiving treatment in hospital or isolating in the community, versus more than 212,000 on Aug 13 last year, data from the health ministry showed.
During the previous 24 hours, 16,131 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovering from the coronavirus.
The new caseload was 2,335 more than the 23,557 announced the day before, while deaths dropped by one from 39.
Of the 23,557 new cases, just 228 were detected in new arrivals from other countries. The rest were all local transmissions.
Since the pandemic started in early 2020, there have been 2,794,350 Covid-19 cases, including 570,915 cases this year, with 2,590,589 complete recoveries to date. – Bangkok Post
Local pharma hopes for approval of Sinovac for minors
The pharmaceutical consortium IP Biotech Group is looking forward to the approval of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine Sinovac for minors that would boost paediatric immunization in the country.
In a statement, IP Biotech said the Chinese vaccine has secured emergency use authorization (EUA) for children aged six years to 17 years in Brazil and Thailand, which could be the basis for the same EUA in the country.
It added that Sinovac is also being used for paediatric vaccination in China, Chile, Indonesia, Malaysia, and other countries in the region.
“The medical communities and regulators in several countries have provided data that can assure parents on the safety and efficacy of vaccinating their children. The data will show that Sinovac is indeed a very safe choice for children and teenagers. This supports the notion on the safety and reliability of inactivated virus vaccines, much like the flu vaccine," IP Biotech chair Enrique Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez cited the study in Chile, with data collected from 1.9 million children aged six years to 17 years showing Sinovac's 74 percent efficacy.
An average of 90 percent of those who got the Sinovac jabs and contracted Covid-19, were not hospitalized and 100 percent avoided intensive care unit hospitalization and death.
“As the country is now focusing on vaccinated children and adolescents, it is important that we provide more choices and proper vaccine access to Filipino families,” Gonzalez said.
IP Biotech facilitated the initial arrival of Sinovac, procured by the private sector, in the country. – Philippine News Agency
Vietnamese COVID-19 vaccine passports not rolled out yet two months after introduction
Vietnamese COVID-19 vaccine certificates are still not available two months after the Ministry of Health officially introduced the template forms and issuance procedures due to technical issues.
The Health Ministry on Wednesday sent a request to the Ministry of Information and Communications on expediting the process, especially with regards to digitally signing the certificates, to facilitate international travel and businesses of Vietnamese people.
On February 15-18, the Department for Information Technology under the Health Ministry worked with the Ministry of Information and Communications and the military-run telecom group Viettel to review and evaluate the digital signing procedures and concluded that the functions at this moment have not met the requirements and cannot be rolled out in time.
In the request, the Health Ministry also attached a document stating a list of requirements on the issuance of vaccine passports, including the necessity for the digital signatures to be available on JSON documents (currently the system allows only PDF files) and expansion of the ability to sign digitally beyond the system of Viettel to other operators/providers as well.
The Health Ministry also wants the “vaccine passports” to be displayed on the national COVID-19 app, PC-COVID (which is operated by the National Technology Centre for COVID-19 Prevention and Control, sponsored by Bkav, Viettel and VNPT), in synchronisation with the “vaccine passport” issuance certification system of the Health Ministry. – Vietnam News
Early protection: Jabs drive for 3-5-year-olds gets off to a great start
The campaign to vaccinate children aged three to five years got off to a great start in the capital yesterday with parents rushing to have their little ones protected against Covid-19, especially the highly-infectious Omicron variant. Phnom Penh governor Khuong Sreng said yesterday he was really surprised to see the mass involvement of parents bringing their children to get inoculated.
“More than 8,000 young children received the vaccine today which is a great result for the campaign drive, he said. “The parents have shown an example to all age groups that vaccination plays an important role in combating Covid-19 and is one of the main shields to protect their small kids from severe infection and hospitalisation.”
“They (the parents) have impressed officials with their active collaboration to help tackle the Covid-19 virus spread. They did not hesitate or have doubts that the vaccine will have a side effect to their child’s health,” Sreng added.
He pointed out that despite assurances by officials, some parents still had doubts and come up with lame excuses to avoid having their child vaccinated.
Sreng noted that it was not easy to inoculate young children who are afraid of needles so health officials took their time and calmed them before administering the injection.
He said it was impressive to note that the parents also played their role to calm their children. – Khmer Times
SNLD chair says threat to suspend parties will only earn junta more enemies
A threat by Myanmar’s junta-appointed Union Election Commission (UEC) to deregister two of the country’s largest political parties will only result in further opposition to the regime, according to the chair of one of the affected parties.
“If they want to pick a fight with organisations that are staying neutral, like us, then they will just be making new enemies,” said Sai Nyunt Lwin, the chair of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD).
He was responding to a warning issued by the UEC on Wednesday that the SNLD and the ousted ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), could both have their party registrations suspended for three years if they don’t comply with orders to submit to an audit of their finances.
Both parties declined last week to send representatives to the UEC’s office in Yangon as part of the audit process.
Citing sections 24c and d of the Political Parties Registration Law, the UEC said that the two parties could be forced to halt all activities for three years if they refuse to cooperate.
If they still haven’t submitted to the audit by the end of the suspension period, they will be disbanded under section 24c of the same law, the commission said in a statement.
According to Sai Nyunt Lwin, the UEC appears to be singling out the SNLD and the NLD for punishment.
“There are several other parties like us. I want to know why they are only focusing on us,” he said without naming which parties he was referring to. – Myanmar NOW
Merah Putih trial participants to be observed for 1 year: researcher
The participants of the Merah Putih (Red and White) vaccine’s clinical trial will be observed for one year, lead researcher for the clinical trial at Airlangga University Dominicus Husada told ANTARA on Wednesday.
The clinical trial of the Merah Putih COVID-19 vaccine is being conducted by many universities in Indonesia. Airlangga University conducted the trial on February 9, 2022, during which 90 people received the vaccine at Dr Soetomo General Hospital in Surabaya, East Java, Husada informed.
"Then, the next step is a one-year observation," he said.
Airlangga University developed the Merah Putih vaccine in cooperation with PT Biotis Pharmaceuticals Indonesia and Dr Soetomo Hospital, he added.
The vaccine candidate is based on an inactivated virus and is currently in Phase 1 of the clinical trial, he said.
Six other teams are developing the Merah Putih vaccine: the University of Indonesia, Bandung Institute of Technology, Gadjah Mada University, Padjadjaran University, former Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), and Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology. All of them have been included in the national consortium for vaccine development. – AntaraNews.Com