These are the top stories making the front pages of major newspapers from across Southeast Asia today.
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Restrictions on migrant workers in Singapore being gradually eased
Migrant workers from approved dormitories can now use communal cooking facilities to whip up their own food on rest days, on top of receiving regular catered meals from their employers on work days. They can also use recreational facilities, such as gyms and basketball courts, as long as the dormitory operators have been given the green light for them to do so. This easing of restrictions began in November, and is part of the calibrated approach being taken by the authorities. The reason for the caution is that the threat of Covid-19 cases resurfacing in the dorms has not gone away, said the chief of the Manpower Ministry's Assurance, Care and Engagement (Ace) Group, Mr Tung Yui Fai, on Thursday (Dec 10). "We still need to keep an eye on the pandemic," he added in an interview with reporters. The restrictions on the more than 300,000 workers living in dormitories were introduced following a surge in Covid-19 cases in the dorms in April. But despite the latest changes, the workers are still largely required to stay in their dorms except when they are going to work or running essential errands. On rest days, however, they can visit specified recreation centres. Mr Tung said: "When it comes to migrant workers going back to the community for activities, I think that over time, we will get there, we will push for it. But first of all, the conditions must be right." He did not specify a time frame on when the workers can return to the community. One of the conditions will be for contact tracing to be carried out effectively, which means all migrant workers have to be equipped with and adopt the use of a contact tracing device. The devices used by migrant workers living or working in dorms or the construction, marine shipyard and process sectors, are called BluePass tokens. These tokens, which are being distributed to the workers, are compatible with the TraceTogether token or app, which means they can exchange information with one another. – The Straits Times
'Exercise caution in giving Covid-19 vaccine shots'
The Health Ministry must ensure the safety and efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines through proper observation of precautions and contraindications before such vaccines are administered. Universiti Malaya's Professor Dr Noran Naqiah Hairi of the Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Practice said this in response to the latest warning issued by Britain's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). MHRA, after the reports of two people having suffered allergic reactions and needing treatment, said that anyone with a history of anaphylaxis to a vaccine, medicine, or food should not receive the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 jab. Noran said Malaysia should take heed and adhere to the new advice. "Those with a significant allergic reaction to a vaccine, medicine or food should not be given the Pfizer-BioNTech jab. "Vaccines should only be administered in facilities where resuscitation measures are available, for example, in hospitals. "Every person should also be screened for contraindications and precautions before being administered a dose." Contraindication is a condition in a patient that increases the chance of a serious, adverse reaction, while a precaution may increase the chance of a serious side effect or render a vaccine less effective. Science, Technology, and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had, on Dec 7, said the government was dealing with pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the Covid-19 vaccine global access for Covid-19 vaccine procurement. He had said Pfizer would ship and directly deliver 12.8 million doses of its vaccine to Malaysia by next year, in stages. Last week, MHRA became the first in the world to approve the Pfizer vaccine, which was proven to be 95 per cent effective in late-stage clinical trials. Millions of Britons received the vaccine – which is administered in two doses, 21 days apart – on Tuesday. MHRA in a statement said anaphylaxis is a known, although very rare, side effect with any vaccine. "Most people will not get anaphylaxis and the benefits in protecting people against Covid-19 outweigh the risks. "Anyone due to receive their vaccine should continue with their appointment and discuss any questions or medical history of serious allergies with the healthcare professional prior to getting the jab." Noran explained that there were many approaches or types of Covid-19 vaccines being produced, when commenting on the safety and efficacy of the Phase 3 clinical trial for the Covid-19 vaccine being developed by the Institute of Medical Biology in the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. – New Straits Times
Rally chiefs vow to get lese majeste law the chop
Anti-government protest leaders, who are facing charges for allegedly offending the monarchy, on Thursday vowed to drum up public support for their call for the revocation of Section 112 of the Criminal Code, or the lese majeste law. In a joint statement read at the 14 October 1973 Memorial, one of the anti-government movement's three rally sites in Bangkok on Thursday, eight protest leaders facing lese majeste charges insisted they would not settle for anything less than the law being repealed. The protest leaders said they would use every possible channel to achieve their goal as they believe Section 112 presents a legal obstacle to many issues. They likened Section 112 to "the first stone that needs to be removed". Among the eight protest leaders charged with the lese majeste law are Parit "Penguin" Chiwarak and Panusaya "Rung" Sithijirawattanakul. The protest leaders said in their statement they believe Section 112 is a hindrance to freedom of expression, carries a hefty penalty and is often exploited as a political tool to suppress political opponents. "Today is Constitution Day and International Human Rights Day. We, students and pro-democracy people, who are being barred by Section 112, are gathering here to call for the revocation of this law," said Mr Parit. "Current legal prosecutions [in all lese majeste cases] should be dropped and amnesty be granted to all suspects and those already punished compensated, for the sake of democracy and for Thailand to be able to move forward and reduce political conflicts in society," he said. A website dedicated to campaigning against the lese majeste law was also launched yesterday. – Bangkok Post
Scientist warns of up to 10% daily spike in COVID-19 cases following 2020 Pilkada
An epidemiologist has warned of a potential surge in COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks as the polls closed yesterday for the 2020 regional elections (Pilkada). Dicky Budiman at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, has released sobering estimates that Indonesia’s daily infection rate could increase by up to 10 percent and its fatality rate by up to 9 percent. “I estimate that at least 2.4 million asymptomatic carriers participated in this year’s elections, so we have to prepare for a spike in daily cases,” Dicky said, as quoted by kompas.id on Wednesday. Dicky said his estimate was based on a research paper by Steven J. Phipps, R. Quentin Grafton and Tom Kompas published on Nov. 18 in the Royal Society Open Science journal. The study, which analysed the official data of 15 developed countries using a “backcasting approach”, estimated that the true number of infected people in these countries was 6.2 times higher than the reported figures. The polls also posed a potential “superspreader” event, despite the General Elections Commission (KPU) enacting a new regulation on the health protocols during the elections. In neighbouring Malaysia, which held an election on Sept. 26 in Sabah state, saw a surge in daily infections 10 days after the polls due to high community mobility and broke its own record following weeks of recording a single- or double-digit increase per day, reported the South China Morning Post. The 2020 Pilkada also carried a high risk of COVID-19 transmission, not least because millions of Indonesians cast their ballots in person at polling stations (TPS) in elections held simultaneously in 270 regencies and municipalities. At the same time, numerous local poll administrators (KPPS) equipped with PPE visited hospitals and isolation facilities to collect the ballots of voters with COVID-19, while more than 1,000 KPPS continued to man the polls despite their reactive results from rapid antibody tests. “There were 1,172 officers who are exposed to COVID-19 and were still present at [TPS]. Of course, we need to confirm the figure in the field and ascertain their COVID-19 status,” said Mochammad Afifuddin of the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu). Bawaslu also found that several TPS lacked special booths reserved for voters with a body temperature of above 37 degrees Celsius, a required facility for reducing the transmission risk on voting day. On Monday, two days before the simultaneous elections on Dec. 9, the South Sulawesi General Elections Commission (KPUD) revealed that hundreds of poll workers in 12 out of the 24 regencies and cities in the province had shown reactive results in their COVID-19 rapid tests. – The Jakarta Post
CPP-NPA-NDF members declared persona non grata in 1,546 LGUS – DILG
A total of 1,546 local government units (LGUs) nationwide have declared members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) as persona non grata in their localities, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said Friday. In a statement, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said that out of the 1,715 LGUs nationwide, 1,546 of these – namely 64 provinces, 110 cities and 1,372 municipalities – have passed resolutions declaring members of the group as persona non grata. Meanwhile, the remaining 169 LGUs, Año added, are in “various stages of deliberation in their respective provincial, city, and municipal councils.” The DILG said that based on its records, six out of the 17 regions nationwide have already reached a 100 percent declaration of persona non grata to the CPP-NPA-NDF members, namely Central Luzon, Central Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan) and Cordillera Administrative Region. “Much like the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to finally end this very old problem using a whole-of-nation approach, and the support from our LGUs gives us great assurance that we are not alone in this war against these atheists, Maoists terrorists,” Año said. The DILG chief added that he is expecting more LGUs to declare the communist rebels persona non grata. “The DILG is looking forward to seeing more LGUs join us in this fight against Communist terrorism. We cannot allow these groups to continue killing people, the time has come to finally put an end to their wicked ways,” he added. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) earlier recommended to President Rodrigo Duterte not to declare a suspension of military operations with the NPA during the Christmas holiday season, and pointed out that the other side showed “incapacity for sincerity and for being unfaithful to a covenant…many times in the past.” – INQUIRER.net
Việt Nam starts human trials of COVID-19 vaccines
Việt Nam has started human trials of a COVID-19 vaccine. Volunteers were recruited for the first phase of the trials of a vaccine on Thursday in Hà Nội. The vaccine was produced by the Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology company, one of four organisations researching COVID-19 vaccines in Việt Nam. Speaking at the recruitment ceremony, Nguyễn Ngô Quang, deputy director of the Ministry of Health’s Administration of Science Technology and Training, said: “The core purpose of the first phase of human trials is to evaluate the safety of a vaccine when used on humans, not its effectiveness, potency, or ability to provoke an immune response in the body. “So, our main objective for this first phase is to identify the optimal dose so we can move on to the second phase. “The second and third phases are when we evaluate the vaccine’s immunogenicity on a wide population.” The ceremony was co-organised by the Ministry of Health and the Military Medical Academy. The academy is also the venue where vaccine injections will take place. “All accommodation, facilities and equipment are ready for the human trials at the academy. Everything has been prepared in accordance with standards required by the Ministry of Health,” said the academy’s director, Lieutenant General Đỗ Quyết. “We have prepared an isolated place for vaccine injections, volunteer monitoring and emergency aid.” The volunteers will be injected with the first dose of the vaccine on December 17 and the second dose 28 days later, according to the health ministry. Sixty volunteers are expected to be recruited for phase one, Lieutenant General Quyết added. “We will recruit 60 volunteers and divide them into three groups, each group will be testing a different dose of vaccine, from 25 to 50 to 75 micrograms,” he said. – Viet Nam News
Cambodia registers it’s 40th community spread of COVID-19 patient, tally now 357
The Ministry of Health today announced that it has found another COVID-19 positive case related to the “November 28 community incident”, bringing the Kingdom’s number of community infections to 40. The 40th patient is identified as Tim Sreypich, a 26-year-old Cambodian woman residing in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district. She is a friend of Ith Komal, a 35-year-old Cambodian man, who tested positive for COVID-19 on December 8. She is now receiving treatment at Khmer-Soviet Friendship hospital. According to the ministry, 3,158 samples were tested yesterday, and only the above case was found positive, it added that the other 248 samples will be tested today. In another announcement today, the third mass sample gathering for those who are involved in the November 28 community incident will be conducted tomorrow (December 12) at various places including the residence of the president of the National Assembly Heng Samrin (8:00am), the residence of Interior Minister Sar Kheng, the National Assembly (9am), the Ministry of Interior(8:00am), the residence of Mr Hun Many (11:00am), Toul Krasaing Pilot and Prime Minister’s bodyguard headquarter (8:00am), and the Olympic Stadium (7:00am). Including this new case, the total is now 357, including 238 Cambodians, 45 French, 18 Chinese, 13 Malaysians, 12 Americans, 9 Indonesians, 6 British, 3 Vietnamese, 3 Canadians, 3 Indians, 2 Hungarians, 2 Pakistanis, 1 Belgian, 1 Kazakhstani, and 1 Polish. – Khmer Times