Thailand – As a result of growing worries about the spread of Omicron, Thailand is contemplating reinstituting strict quarantine for foreign visitors. The nation’s health ministry stated on Monday that the country has had its first incidence of local transmission of the coronavirus variant. According to Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, the public health ministry would propose eliminating a quarantine waiver for …

KUALA LUMPUR- If the government does not get its Covid-19 policies correct, Malaysia is in danger of getting perpetual movement-control orders (MCOs), said Dr Musa Mohd Nordin. Dr Musa said during an online forum on Jom Channel on Wednesday, “We are not finding the hotspots and not doing enough mass testing with rapid tests” (Jan 20). And if the government …

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN – Brunei Darussalam has recorded two more cases of Covid-19 bringing the total tally of confirmed cases to 141. The new cases are friends of Case 139 and they all lived together in a dormitory. According to Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar, Case 140 is a male aged 46 …

PUTRAJAYA – Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today that Malaysia has not had Covid-19 patients discharged from hospitals have experienced re-infection of the disease. On his daily Covid-19 press conference, he said that of the total of 4,032 patients were discharged from the hospital since the disease were first identified. “So far, no reinfection. We do have maybe …

Commercial banks that made the announcements as of Saturday morning are Bangkok Bank, Kasikornbank, Siam Commercial Bank, Bank of Ayudhya, TMB Bank, Thanachart Bank, UOB, Kiatnakin, LH Bank and CIMB Thai. The state-owned GH Bank also closed on Saturday. Three other state banks made the same announcements earlier. They were the Government Savings Bank (GSB), Krungthai Bank and the Bank …

India’s billion-plus population went into a three-week lockdown on Wednesday, with a third of the world now under orders to stay indoors, as the coronavirus pandemic forced Japan to postpone the Olympics until next year. Financial markets soared after a catastrophic month as the US Congress looked set to pass a mammoth stimulus bill, joining the world’s central banks in …

The Interior Ministry has ordered most border provinces to leave only one international checkpoint open as the country tries to block arrivals to contain the coronavirus outbreak that has caused a sharp jump in cases this week. Key checkpoints to temporary shut are the first Thai-Mayanmar Friendship Bridge in Tak, which will be closed until further notice. The Phu Nam …

The number of dead in Italy surpassed those in China, which again reported no new cases in the outbreak’s initial epicentre. India urged its 1.3 billion citizens to stay indoors and barred all flights from overseas for a week. The US warned Americans not to travel abroad and recommended that those who are overseas come home. US Senate majority leader …

PETALING JAYA  – Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the the Movement Control Order (MCO) may be extended  by “maybe another two weeks or even longer” if the Covid-19 situation does not improve and current measures fail to contain the spread of the virus. PM Muhyiddin urged Malaysians  to stay home in line with the Movement Control Order to …

The Public Health Ministry on Wednesday reported 35 new cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19), raising the number of local infections to 212, and warned that lack of personal discipline could make the outbreak uncontrollable. Dr Suwannachai Watanayingcharoenchai, director-general of the Disease Control Department, divided the new cases into two groups. The first one of 29 comprised people in contact with …