Malaysia changes criteria for easing lockdown; Asean reports over 95,000 cases

Malaysians take part in a rare anti-government rally in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2021, despite a tough Covid-19 coronavirus lockdown in place restricting gatherings and public assemblies. AFP

BANGKOK — Southeast Asia saw a reduction in new Covid-19 cases and deaths on Saturday collated data showed.

Asean countries reported 95,811 cases and 2,449 deaths on Saturday, lower than the record 105,278 and 3,069 respectively on Friday.

The Malaysian government said it would consider easing lockdown measures based on the number of patients being admitted to hospitals, patients being treated in ICU rooms and total vaccinated people, instead of of daily Covid-19 cases.

The move is in line with the third phase of the country’s economic recovery plan.

Currently, Malaysia is one of the Southeast Asian countries with the highest vaccination rate — 46 per cent have received the first shot and 24.5 per cent the second shot.

However, Malaysia’s Disease Control Division has confirmed that Covid-19 prevention principles, such as wearing face mask and maintaining social distance are still necessary.

The Nation/Asia News Network

The first batch of 97,111 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine has been delivered to Vietnam.

The delivery came after the Vietnam government decided to purchase 31 million doses of Pfizer vaccine on June 7 after over 20 discussions spread over 10 months.

However, the government did not reveal how much it had paid for the procurement.

Meanwhile, Vietnam’s Health Ministry said that 3 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine would be delivered to the country by the third quarter, while 27-28 million doses would be delivered by the end of this year.