These are the top stories making the front pages of major newspapers from across Southeast Asia today.
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Many new Covid-19 patients in S'pore say they have mild flu-like symptoms
With the highly contagious Omicron variant of Covid-19 spreading through the community here, it seems that everywhere you look, there is someone who knows another person who has caught the coronavirus.
While it has become harder to avoid the virus due to the surge in Covid-19 cases, many of those infected have developed just mild flu-like symptoms, though unpleasant.
A check with 12 people who got infected in the past two months showed that just one person lost her sense of smell and taste for a while. Some of them did not even know they had caught Covid-19 until they tested positive for it.
Experts have warned that the sheer number of Omicron-fuelled Covid-19 cases can still overwhelm health systems.
Nevertheless, many people now appear a lot less fearful, as it becomes clear that the Omicron variant - while more transmissible - causes less severe disease compared with the Delta variant.
A 34-year-old male executive who had a sore throat and tested positive for Covid-19 at home said he simply took some lozenges and paracetamol. He did not see a general practitioner (GP).
Sore throat was a symptom for 11 of the 12 people The Straits Times spoke to. One person did not have any symptoms. Other common symptoms include fever, cough and headache.
Mr Marcus Chua, who is 28 and self-employed, said his throat hurt a lot, especially when he coughed. He also had a blocked nose, phlegm, headache, fatigue and no appetite - symptoms which he said took days to appear.
A few others told ST that their illness was not initially picked up by an antigen rapid test (ART). These tests may not be able to pick up the virus when the viral load in a person's body is very low early in the infection. – Straits Times
Malaysia's Rt value reaches 1.27
Malaysia's Covid-19 infectivity rate or Rt value is at 1.27, as of Sunday.
This was a 0.07 increase from the 1.20 Rt value reported the day before.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said all states current Rt had surpassed the 1.0 level, with Sabah having the highest Rt value of 1.47.
On his social media updates today, Dr Noor Hisham said the Rt value in Perlis was at 1.40, followed by Sarawak (1.30), and Labuan, Putrajaya as well as Kedah each recorded the Rt value of 1.25. The Rt value in Terengganu is at 1.23, Johor (1.22), Selangor (1.21), Penang and Pahang each at 1.20.
Five states reported an Rt value lesser than 1.20. They were Melaka at 1.16, Perak (1.15), Negri Sembilan (1.13), Kelantan (1.11) and Kuala Lumpur with 1.10 Rt value.
The country records 10,089 new infections yesterday, pushing the cumulative Covid-19 caseloads to 2,914,220 since the pandemic hit in early 2020. – New Straits Times
Prayut walks on thin ice
The possibility of the government completing its four-year term in March next year hangs in the balance as a mid-year censure debate will be critical to its fate.
After repeatedly stressing he intends to see out his tenure, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha changed his tone when asked by reporters late last week about a possible early election. He told them he could not say whether he would dissolve the House before two organic laws related to the election system were approved in parliament.
The organic laws – the Political Parties Act and the MP Election Act – are to be amended to reflect the plan to revert the kingdom's voting system back to the dual-ballot system, one for electing constituency MPs and another for party-list MPs.
Gen Prayut's remarks show an amount of uncertainty over the government's fate, and one key factor behind it is the pull-out of 21 MPs from the ruling-Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP).
The group of MPs is led by former PPRP secretary-general Thamanat Prompow, the former deputy agriculture and cooperatives minister who was sacked from the cabinet last year by Gen Prayut.
Capt Thamanat engineered a plot to topple Gen Prayut by persuading MPs in coalition parties, including the PPRP, to vote against him in a no-confidence debate in September. – Bangkok Post
No 'politicking' in probe of 'kill plot' vs. Marcos: PNP-ACG
The Philippine National Police-Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) denied claims of politicking in its investigation into the alleged assassination plot against presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
"The PNP as a whole, is an organization that is non-partisan and has no involvement or interest whatsoever in any political affairs involving our poll bets," PNP-ACG spokesperson Lt. Michelle Sabino said in a statement Sunday night.
This came after the Kabataan Party-list earlier scored the Department of Justice and the ACG for linking them to the alleged assassination plot on video sharing app TikTok.
"When we receive reports and complaints we investigate and validate to check its truthfulness and accuracy. We gather evidence/s and facts and if warranted, we pursue the filing of appropriate complaints in the proper courts. Such is always the case," Sabino said.
Sabino also clarified that while they merely stated the facts when they said that the TikTok account "ljluna7" was following the party-list group, they did not say that the group was involved in the plot.
PNP-ACG chief, Brig. Gen. Robert Rodriguez, earlier said the account under the name "ljluna7" had been deleted, but digital forensic experts were able to save the account's electronic footprint which will serve as evidence of the crime committed.
TikTok earlier said the account involved in the alleged assassination plot against Marcos has been permanently banned from its platform. – Philippine News Agency
Gov't agrees to buy 21.9m Pfizer vaccine shots for children aged 5-11 years
The Vietnamese Government has approved the Ministry of Health’s proposal to purchase 21.9 million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines for children from five to under 12 years old.
The contractor selection will follow the special circumstances model specified in Article 26 of the Law on Bidding, due to the urgent nature of ongoing pandemic prevention and control efforts.
The Ministry of Health is to be responsible for organising the purchase and deployment of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children from 5 to under 12 years old, ensuring safety and effectiveness.
A survey from the ministry indicated that about 50 per cent of parents in the country agree to let their children in the 5-11 age group get the vaccines, with further details on this survey expected after the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday that ended on Sunday.
There is also no information yet available on the rollout plan of the vaccines, but it has been suggested that children in this age group will only be recommended to get the shots, no mandate will be enforced.
Health minister Nguyen Thanh Long in an interview with local media last month has admitted administration to this age group would be more difficult than the rollout for adults and teenagers aged 12-17 that the country has been doing, and it has accepted the likelihood that there will be some number of doses going unused. – Vietnam News
As community infections of Omicron rises, the government reinforces right to punish those who don’t declare positive cases
Since the Government announced that those who are infected with Omicron can be treated at home on January 20, many have resorted to self-testing by using rapid test kits and are staying at home. However, they do not report their positive infection findings to the authorities, giving rise to believe that the possibility of higher Omicron cases than the 1,320 Omicron cases reported as of Sunday February 6, comprising 788 community cases and the rest imported cases.
Many are said to have been taking Lianhua Qingwen Capsules and or Molnupiravir tablets and have tested negative after completing the recommended course. Negative results were returned at least twice, leading those infected to return to their normal routine although there were reports of re-infections if the recommended courses were not followed.
Phnom Penh City Hall has issued a notice to warn people who have been self-diagnosed with COVID-19 that they will be fined and possibly imprisoned if they failed to notify officials of the Ministry of Health or local officials. The notice is in order to more effectively control the treatment of patients at home, especially Omicron cases, and at the same time to prevent the further spread of the epidemic in the community.
Analysts say that the law in itself is good but quite impossible to implement due to the stigma associated with the red tape in front of a premise where Covid-infected patients are recuperating or a sign stating the same – home treatment for Covid-19 patients.
“It sends a negative signal to those in the neighbourhood, leading rise to discrimination,” they said. – Khmer Times
Telenor sale to military-linked consortium to be complete in mid-February
Telenor’s sale of its Myanmar subsidiary will be completed by February 15, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.
The company will be majority-owned by the military-linked gems and petrol conglomerate, Shwe Byain Phyu.
According to the source, two members of the military council are involved with Shwe Byain Phyu and will benefit from the sale, although Myanmar Now could not independently verify this.
When asked to comment on the involvement of the junta members in the deal, Telenor Group communications director Cathrine Stang Lund replied that, “We are not commenting on speculations in the market.”
Internal documents seen by Myanmar Now from the junta’s Post and Telecommunications Department under the Ministry of Transport and Communications indicate that the buyer will be Investcom Myanmar, a company that has not yet been registered.
The document stated that Shwe Byain Phyu will be the majority owner of Investcom Myanmar. The source told Myanmar Now that Shwe Byain Phyu will own 70 to 80 percent of the company.
Telenor, a leading telecommunications operator in Myanmar serving more than 18 million users, announced in early July it was selling its Myanmar unit to M1 Group for US$105m.
The junta “privately” approved the sale of Telenor's operation in Myanmar to M1 Group and Shwe Byain Phyu last month after several months of stalling the process, Reuters reported on January 21. – Myanmar NOW
Indonesian madrasahs embrace digital technology
Digital transformation in education is inevitable as one of the efforts to improve the quality of learning, including for madrasahs (Islamic schools) throughout Indonesia.
To this end, the Ministry of Religious Affairs has made efforts to help madrasahs in Indonesia to adopt digital technology.
In 2021, the ministry prepared the Madrasah Affirmation Assistance fund of Rp.399.9 billion implemented through the Realizing Education’s Promise Madrasah Education Quality Reform program targeted at 2,666 madrasahs in the country.
Director-General of Islamic Education M Ali Ramdhani affirmed that each madrasah under the program received the assistance of Rp.150 million.
According to him, the assistance was given to madrasahs that had implemented the Madrasah Self Evaluation (EDM) system and the e-RKAM system (Electronic-based Madrasah Work Plan and Budget), which had been introduced in 2020 and began to be applied in 2021.
The assistance was given in the form of cash and was expected to be prioritized for the urgent needs of the madrasah, he said. – AntaraNews.Com