These are the top stories making the front pages of major newspapers from across Southeast Asia today.
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Asean summits conclude with focus on recovery from Covid-19, community building
Asean concluded its 38th and 39th summits and related summits on Thursday (Oct 28) with commitments to support post-Covid-19 recovery and regional community building.
Addressing the closing ceremony, Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei, which is the Asean chair for 2021, said that leaders of the 10-country bloc had productive discussions on the current state and future direction of the region as well as considered ways to further enhance relationships with external partners.
The Sultan said that Asean has stepped up efforts to respond to and recover from Covid-19, including work to help its people by securing vaccines and protecting their well-being through the Asean Comprehensive Framework on Care Economy, as the region continues to face the Covid-19 pandemic, especially with the emergence of new variants. - Straits Times
Over 150,000 Covid-19 booster shots dispensed
The Health Ministry reported 95 Covid-19 deaths on Thursday (Oct 28), a slight decrease from 98 logged on Oct 27.
According to the ministry's data shared on CovidNow and GitHub, the latest fatalities raised the country's death toll to 28,769.
Of the 95 deaths, 24 were brought-in-dead (BID) cases, increasing the nationwide BID tally to 5,827. - New Straits Times
FDA to hear proposals to vaccinate younger kids
Moves are afoot to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to administer Covid-19 vaccines to younger children, officials said on Thursday.
Dr Opas Karnkawinpong, director-general of the Department of Disease Control, said more rigorous testing is required to ensure that prospective vaccines are safe for children, which extends the timeline before they can be approved.
China's Sinopharm has been tested on sample groups of children and the manufacturer is concluding its study before meeting the FDA soon. Officials were hopeful that a speedy approval may be in the works. - Bangkok Post
PH crimes drop by almost 50% in last 5 years
The Philippine National Police (PNP) reported that the total number of crimes in the country dropped by almost 50 percent over the past 63 months since July 2016.
In a statement on Thursday night, PNP chief, Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said this data is indicated in the National Crime Environment Report derived from the Crime Information Reporting and Analysis System (CIRAS), an electronic crime analytic tool that captures blotter entries and incident reports from all police units and offices across the country.
The data showed that from 2.67 million crimes reported from 2010 to 2015, it went down by 49.6 percent to only 1.36 million from 2016 to September this year. - Philippine News Agency
Vietnam, New Zealand foster strategic partnership
Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son has suggested Vietnam and New Zealand early complete the signing of an action programme for 2021-2024 on the sidelines of the APEC Economic Leaders’ Week to push forward their strategic partnership.
The minister made the suggestion at a reception for New Zealand Ambassador Tridene Dobson in Hanoi on October 28.
He also urged efforts to make it easier for Vietnamese agro-fishery products to access the New Zealand market, towards the goal of bringing two-way trade to US$2 billion in 2024. - Vietnam News
Unvaccinated C-19 fatality rate high, surviving families guilt-ridden
While the total number of Covid-19 fatalities has dropped across the Kingdom, the majority of those dying are people who were told to wait to be vaccinated, namely the elderly and pregnant women, and surviving family members are struggling not only with grief but also guilt for not taking their loved ones to get vaccinated.
Prior to October 19, the Health Ministry did not record whether or not Covid-19 patients had been vaccinated. As of yesterday, the report of the first nine days shows 61 out of 88 deaths were patients who did not receive a vaccine.
Prime Minister Hun Sen has said that two thirds of all deaths from Covid-19 were unvaccinated patients, and many were elderly with preexisting conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and respiratory diseases. - Khmer Times
NUG established 'chain of command' in fight against regime
Nearly two months after declaring a “resistance war” against Myanmar’s coup regime, the underground National Unity Government (NUG) has formed a central committee to coordinate military operations across the country, its defence ministry said on Thursday.
The newly formed Central Command and Coordination Committee aims to carry out coordinated attacks against the military junta under one chain of command, according to NUG defence secretary Naing Htoo Aung.
“The committee includes individuals from the NUG tasked with defence and military affairs, as well as leaders from some ethnic armed groups,” he said, speaking to Myanmar Now on Thursday.– Myanmar NOW
Jokowi hopes health will be focus of ASEAN-India cooperation
Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has stressed the significance of maintaining cooperation between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and India in the health sector, particularly to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
"(This is aimed) not only to address the COVID-19 pandemic but also to prepare ourselves for pandemics in the future,” he said while addressing the 18th ASEAN-India Summit, which he joined virtually from the Bogor Presidential Palace on Thursday.
According to him, India has a large capacity in the health sector, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry. - AntaraNews.Com