Disasters and emergency response

Employees who are members of their business’s social insurance scheme are eligible to receive financial assistance for temporary unemployment or loss of workdays during the COVID-19 lockdown. However, only members of business-related social insurance schemes will be able to receive compensation from the National Social Security ...

A senior US diplomat on Thursday said China’s “manipulation” of water flows in the Mekong River – currently at record lows – was an immediate challenge to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, signalling the issue could be on the agenda in a regional forum ...

A prison inmate in Thailand has tested positive for the coronavirus in the country’s first confirmed locally transmitted case in 100 days, health officials said Thursday. They identified the inmate as a 37-year-old man arrested for drug abuse who was brought to prison in Bangkok on ...

Facebook and the Mekong River Commission (MRC) launched a collaboration initiative Monday to provide early flood alert and drought monitoring information to Mekong nations. The MRC stated it has installed 22 hydrological stations along the main channel in the lower Mekong River basin to monitor and ...

Along a busy highway on the outskirts of Vietnam’s largest city, a worn-out looking woman carrying all her worldly possessions in a handful of plastic bags picks her way through a web of swaying hammocks, looking for one that’s empty so she can lay her ...

Ten days ago, Myanmar seemed to have COVID-19 under control. Just a handful of local transmission cases had been confirmed in the past three months.  The Ministry of Health and Sports has now reported more than 100 new cases within 24 hours, including 99 in Rakhine ...

With its coastal embankment threatened by collapse, Ca Mau Province is seeking urgent solutions to save residential areas and farmland. The province entered a state of emergency Thursday to respond to any damage occurring as a three kilometer (1.86 miles) coastal embankment along its western coast ...

Heavy rains and flooding in Northern Thailand damaged homes and killed 1 resident. 2 people are reported missing. The Nation Thailand did not report the details of the death, but says the “flood crisis” affected 10 provinces and more than 7,000 homes in the area. Flood victims are ...

For the past three decades, Vietnam has known only good — or great — economic news. The nation’s consistent growth as an exporter, propelled by Communist leaders who began embracing market-oriented policies in the late 1980s, pushed many into the middle class. The coronavirus pandemic changed ...

Prime Minister and Defense Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha, together with cabinet members, namely, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy Supattanapong Punmeechaow, Minister of Interior Gen. Anupong Paojinda, Minister of ...