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.
Stay informed with The ASEAN Post.
Travellers eagerly await reunions as US travel changes near
Across America on Monday (Nov 8), airports expect to be filled with people reuniting with significant others, parents and friends from the 33 countries that have been prohibited from travelling directly to the US for more than 18 months.
Ms Luise Greve, 23, of Erlangen in Germany is among the travellers who bought the first flight that would get them to their loved ones' side as soon as the White House announced that travel would open on Nov 8 to fully vaccinated visitors from previously banned countries.
Singapore is not one of the 33 countries affected by the travel ban. - Straits Times
Over 30 Covid-19 deaths reported
Malaysia recorded 35 deaths due to Covid-19 yesterday, bringing the national death toll to 29,295.
Based on data shared on CovidNow and GitHub, five of the total fatalities were brought-in-dead (BID) cases.
Majority of the deaths were reported in Sarawak and Johor with six deaths each followed by Perak and Terengganu with five deaths each. - New Straits Times
Visualising the infodemic
The government needs to be faster and be more precise in dealing with fake news, especially fake news concerning Covid-19, said the Minister for Digital Economy and Society, Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn.
Considering the amount of information on the disease which is circulating online and on social media, the minister said the pandemic is as much a public health threat as it is an information issue.
Given how reliant Thais are on the internet and social media for information -- the average Thai spends about nine hours a day on the internet, and almost 80% of the country is on social media -- tackling misinformation and false claims is almost impossible. - Bangkok Post
Public urged to get vaxxed as holidays draw near
The Department of Health in Davao Region (DOH-11) urged the public to get vaccinated in time for the holidays and to achieve population protection before the month ends.
The regional health office is targeting around 3.7 million individuals to get inoculated in the whole region by November 30.
As of November 7, a total of 1.5 million individuals have been fully vaccinated with the life-saving shots or about 40.28 percent. - Philippine News Agency
City deploys more mobile medical stations, quick response teams against COVID
Areas in HCM City with a rising number of COVID-19 cases are having to deploy more mobile medical stations and quick response teams.
In the last two weeks, the number of new cases have been picking up again, with some days seeing more than 1,000, according to Nguyen Van Vinh Chau, deputy director of the Department of Health.
This is partly due to many unvaccinated and partly vaccinated people returning from provinces to work, he said. - Vietnam News
Tip of the iceberg: More than 500 pregnant women died of C-19 complications
At least 560 unvaccinated pregnant women were believed to be among the 2,829 Covid-19 deaths reported in Cambodia.
The Ministry of Health spokesman Hok Kim Kheng is of the belief that this could be just the tip of the iceberg as the authorities are still in the midst of gathering the actual number of pregnant women who had succumbed to the deadly disease ever since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the Kingdom.
Despite the Ministry advising pregnant women to take the vaccine shot, there are still many who blatantly defy the directive. - Khmer Times
As Suu Kyi stands trial, her judge - and Myanmar's judiciary - come under scrutiny
In a country notorious for the opacity of its justice system, Ye Lwin is a rare bird: a judge who is not just a faceless cog in a machine that routinely does the bidding of Myanmar’s military.
Currently serving as a judge in Naypyitaw’s Dekkhina District Court, he has presided over a number of high-profile cases, including those against Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of the country’s ousted civilian government.
Most recently, he was the lead justice in a two-judge panel that last week sentenced Win Htein, a patron of the deposed ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to 20 years in prison for sedition. - Myanmar NOW
Indonesia pushes for enhanced cooperation with Thailand in tourism
Indonesian Ambassador to Thailand Rachmat Budiman has pushed for enhanced cooperation between the two nations in the tourism and trade fields following Thailand’s policy to extend quarantine-free entry to vaccinated tourists from 63 countries including Indonesia as of November 2021.
The policy is expected to pave the way for the recovery of Indonesian tourist arrivals to Thailand, the ambassador said in a written statement released on Saturday.
“The policy will also encourage enhanced bilateral cooperation in the economic and trade field,” he said at a meeting with Phuket Governor Krabi and Vice Governor Surat Thani as part of his working visit to the province from November 1 to 4.– AntaraNews.Com