For the past two years, every road has been the one less travelled. But with restrictions finally easing across Southeast Asia, many are optimistic about a return to normality, according to the experts who spoke to Mick Shippen
Laos: Health ministry going ahead with plans to vaccinate final year student; 219 local cases are recorded on Friday (Sept 17) thestar.com.my - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thestar.com.my Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
AFP
Vietnam has rescinded a recent endorsement of 12 traditional medicines as effective treatment against COVID-19 after promotion of the herbal remedies by the country’s health ministry caused an outcry among experts.
Nguyen Truong Son, the deputy health minister, issued a dispatch on bolstering COVID-19 prevention measures with traditional medicines and herbal products on Saturday only to recall it Monday after it created a backlash among pharmacists and started a storm on social media over the weekend.
Son explained the withdrawal saying that it had some inappropriate content that the ministry spotted only after publishing the dispatch.
According to the
VietnamPlus online newspaper, after seeing the dispatch, experts and pharmaceutical industry employees expressed anger that many of the listed supplements and products do not work on COVID-19.
Photo: RFA
Lao migrant workers are coming home in large numbers from Thailand but are bringing COVID-19 with them, driving up new infections in Laos, which has recently seen a drop in the number of domestic cases, Lao sources say.
Up to 246,757 Lao workers have returned from Thailand since the pandemic began, with around 150,000 coming back in 2020 and their numbers now increasing day by day, Lao and Thai labor officials confirmed in a virtual meeting held on July 9.
Around 893 returned to Laos on July 11, Sisavath Southanilaxay Deputy Director General of the Department of Communicable Disease Control told a news conference that day, while an official in southern Laos’ Champassak province said on July 8 that around 200 workers had crossed each day into his province in the last five days.
By VNA / DA NANG Today
July 06, 2021, 09:11 [GMT+7]
Thailand’s Public Health Ministry said it will increase the capacity of Bussarakham Field Hospital to 4,000 beds in a bid to cope with a possible surge in infections from the Delta variant of COVID-19.
The hospital is in Nonthaburi’s Impact Muang Thong Thani and serves metropolitan Bangkok.
The ministry recently added 1,500 beds, bringing the total capacity to 3,700 beds and will add another 300 beds to accommodate 4,000 patients, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said.
Bussarakham Field Hospital treats patients who have moderate symptoms with underlying health issues that require close monitoring, and patients who have tested positive but are asymptomatic or have minor symptoms.