Citizen journalist
At least 30 people confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 are in hiding in the jungles of Myanmar’s remote Sagaing region after fleeing fighting between troops loyal to the country’s military regime and a branch of the People’s Defense Force (PDF) militia, residents said Thursday.
The patients had been receiving medical treatment at two donor-funded COVID-19 centers in Kalay township’s Ashaysee and Tinthar villages but were forced to vacate the area along after clashes broke out between junta forces and members of the Kalay PDF on July 15, according to a villager who spoke to RFA’s Myanmar Service on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.
RFA
A failure to quickly control soaring COVID-19 infections and deaths amid a third wave of the coronavirus in Myanmar could bring the country to its knees, medical experts said Wednesday, while blaming the junta for allowing the national healthcare system to disintegrate after it seized power in February.
The number of infections in Myanmar rose by 5,860 over a 24-hour period to a total of 246,663 since the the country’s first recorded case in March last year. The official monthly infection rate has jumped from around two percent of those tested in April 2020 during the first wave of the coronavirus to 23 percent earlier this month, although the actual rate is unknown because currently only 12,000-15,000 COVID-19 tests are being administered each day.
RFA video screenshop/local CCTV Turmoil in Yangon and court drama in Hong Kong.
Myanmar’s police and military forces have turned their attention to targeting medics and volunteers assisting wounded anti-junta demonstrators, at times using excessive force against them, witnesses, officials, and emergency medical workers said Thursday.
On Wednesday the deadliest day since the coup began on Feb. 1 police beat up, shot, and detained medics helping injured protesters in Yangon and Monywa, the largest city in northwestern Myanmar’s Sagaing region, they said.
Security forces in recent days have destroyed ambulances, medical equipment, and internationally recognized Red Cross flags, and have injured medics, the Myanmar Red Cross Society said in a statement on Tuesday.