Disasters and emergency response

Four of the 26 houses in danger of sliding into the Mekong River collapsed on Sunday leaving 16 families homeless. The accident took place at around 2.30pm in Kandal province’s Loeuk Dek district, in Prek Dach commune, due to heavy rain and wind. Major Lonh Samnang, Prek ...

Thailand’s COVID-19 task force also recorded 25 new deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 614 since the pandemic started last year. Excluding the jail clusters, Monday’s new cases of 2,782 are close to a record high of 2,839 recorded late last month. Thailand has administered ...

Yesterday, Thailand’s Department of Corrections announced that nearly 3,000 inmates at two prisons in Thailand’s capital had tested positive for COVID-19, amid the country’s ongoing outbreak of the virus. In a statement, the department said that 1,785 of the 3,274 inmates tested positive at Bangkok Remand Prison, which ...

As Myanmar’s national COVID-19 response collapses following a 1 February military coup, one ethnic armed organisation in the country’s north has quietly vaccinated 20,000 people in areas it governs, with support from across the border in China. The vaccines, produced by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech, ...

The National Disaster Management Committee is preparing to respond to emergencies caused by heavy rainfall through the prompt provision of assistance and subsequent recovery. Numerous countries around the world including Laos suffer from weather extremes such as floods and earthquakes as well as crop pests and ...

Authorities in Laos have reported a significant Covid-19 outbreak near the notorious Kings Romans casino, whose Chinese owner is accused by the United States of trafficking people, wildlife and drugs. Officials said a cluster of cases in Tonpheung district was traced to people who illegally entered ...

The Australian government on May 7 signed an agreement with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to contribute an additional A$4 million (US$3.15 million) to mitigate the impacts of Covid-19 on Cambodia’s economy and people, the UNDP said in a press release. The agreement took effect immediately, ...

Few outings to a nightclub can claim such dire consequences as the early-February gathering at N8, a windowless adult entertainment venue in an unsuspecting district of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. Two women, unwitting carriers of the more-infectious B.1.1.7 variant of Covid-19, also known as the ...

There has been a significant decline in the elephant population of Southern Thailand as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. In Phang Nga Province, which normally has more domesticated elephants than any other Southern Thailand province, the elephant population has dropped by a third of ...

The COVID-19 outbreak continues to strain healthcare providers physically and financially. As they have to cope with the increased workload associated with screening patients for the new coronavirus infection and treating them if they are infected, the extra work always come with extra costs. Even though, ...