Pandemics

The Beijing-backed and financed China-Lao high-speed railway’s official inauguration was planned for December 2021, symbolically opening coincident with the 46th anniversary of the founding of communist rule in Laos. But the Covid-19 crisis has caused delays in the 414-kilometer railway’s construction, with progress on the link ...

The Public Health Ministry has expanded the definition of “Patient Under Investigation” (PUI) to four cases where free tests will be administered, Dr Taweesin Visanuyothin, spokesman of the government’s Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, said on Wednesday (April 8). 1. Passengers screened by international communicable disease ...

The coronavirus outbreak has upended our lives in unimaginable ways and prison inmates are no exceptions to the struggles. In light of the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic, people globally are facing a multitude of challenges and problems. While the lethal virus is claiming lives in ...

Job loss, crowded quarters and reduced access to healthcare are among the issues foreign workers face. Advocacy groups say the pandemic can only be controlled with an inclusive approach that protects every individual’s rights to life and health. The spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus among Singapore’s migrant ...

Late last week, Vietnam handed over some assistance to Laos and Cambodia as the two fellow Southeast Asian states continue to manage the impact of the global coronavirus pandemic. While the development was in line with what Hanoi had previously signaled, it nonetheless put the ...

The Cambodian government should take urgent measures to reduce the risk that the country’s severely overcrowded prisons will suffer COVID-19 outbreaks, Human Rights Watch said today. Reducing overcrowding in prisons is important to prevent outbreaks, which would have serious health consequences for prisoners, prison staff, and the ...

The World Bank has approved a $20 million line of credit from the International Development Association (IDA) to assist Cambodia’s COVID-19 emergency response. This is part of the banks first emergency support package dedicated to fast-track COVID-19 aid. The World Bank said, the funds will help ...

Hundreds of thousands of people displaced by conflict in Myanmar face a health “catastrophe” from the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, a rights group warned, as international calls grow for an end to fighting. Overcrowded camps with an estimated 350,000 people were “Covid-19 tinderboxes”, Human Rights Watch said. Myanmar ...

The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) and its member organizations, Equality Myanmar, Progressive Voice and Women’s League of Burma, have jointly called for the full restoration of Internet services in townships in Rakhine and Chin states to enable communities to access critical ...

The six countries in the Langcang-Mekong Region vowed to further enhance water resource cooperation in a video conference during the 2020 LMC (Lancang-Mekong Cooperation) Week activity that began on Monday. “At present, the novel coronavirus is spreading globally, and all countries in the world are fighting ...