COVID-19 testing collapses in Myanmar after coup
09 February, 2021
Testing for coronavirus possesses collapsed in Myanmar following a military coup prompted a campaign of civil disobedience led by simply doctors and mass protests swept the united states, official testing figures showed.
The number of daily tests reported past due on Monday (Feb 8) stood at 1,987, the lowest number since Dec 29, compared with a lot more than 9,000 weekly earlier and typically a lot more than 17,000 a time in the week before the Feb 1 coup. Because the coup, tests each day have averaged 9,350.
The quantity of cases found on Mon was just four - compared with an average of 420 a day in the last week of January.
A good health ministry spokesman declined to comment. In a statement on Monday, the ministry appealed to health and wellbeing workers for support with a vaccination campaign that started late last month.
It said all workers "are strongly urged to come back with their duties with taking the well-being of patients into consideration".
Myanmar has suffered among the worst coronavirus outbreaks in Southeast Asia with a complete of 31,177 deaths from a lot more than 141,000 cases.
Health workers have already been at the forefront of a good civil disobedence campaign against the coup, stopping do the job to demand the let go of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and recognition of her party's big gain in a good November election.
Aung San Suu Kyi's government had instituted lockdowns which helped reduce the pass on of the virus and the number of fatalities from their peak in October, but also had a difficult economic impact on among the region's poorest countries.
Junta head Min Aung Hlaing, whose removal and detention of the widely popular Aung San Suu Kyi prompted mass protests, promised found in his first televised address on Mon to make the attack against COVID-19 important - including vaccinations for all.
The army seized power alleging fraud in previous year's election, a claim the electoral commission had rejected.
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