Malaysia PM Muhyiddin to stick to confidence vote next month; fresh polls a 'last resort' - The Straits Times

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is resisting demands to bring forward a parliamentary confidence vote from next month, despite the King joining the chorus of calls for the embattled Premier to prove his majority.

The Straits Times understands that consecutive meetings were held with party chiefs of his Perikatan Nasional (PN) government on Wednesday evening (Aug 11)  - first at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and then at his residence - to discuss internal matters, as well as the best plan of action moving forward.

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2021-08-12 09:55:50Z
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China mahjong dens were Covid-19 superspreader sites, spurring crackdown - The Straits Times

BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) - A favourite pastime of elderly Asians has been implicated as a major driver of China's current outbreak of Delta virus cases, sparking the shutdown of tens of thousands of mahjong dens across the country.

The so-called chess and card rooms, where hundreds of elderly people gather in packed and poorly ventilated spaces primarily to play mahjong, were how a 64-year-old woman surnamed Mao spread the Delta variant in the eastern city of Yangzhou, seeding the biggest single outbreak in China's ongoing wave of infections.

Local officials in Jiangsu province, where Yangzhou is located, have now shut down more than 45,000 chess and card rooms, and  the authorities in Beijing and at least four other hard-hit provinces - Henan, Zhejiang, Hunan and Heilongjiang - have followed suit.

The spread of the virus through these mahjong dens despite China's rigorous measures and fast vaccine roll-out reflects the challenges posed by underground social sites across the region.

From hostess bars in Japan, to social dancing clubs in Hong Kong and karaoke lounges in Singapore, these locales have stymied governments which are some of the most successful in the world at containment.

In China's case, Madam Mao had travelled from the nearby city of Nanjing, where China's Delta outbreak first started, to a relative's home in Yangzhou, where she played mahjong in several chess and card rooms before being diagnosed with Covid-19, said local media reports.

One of the rooms that Madam Mao visited had a nondescript facade and small entrance, but opened into a cavernous basement that could accommodate around 100 mahjong tables.

In the week after her diagnosis, nearly a hundred people in Yangzhou contracted the virus, with 64 per cent of them exposed in mahjong rooms, and nearly 70 per cent of them aged 60 years and older.

The Yangzhou cluster has escalated in severity because only 40 per cent of local elderly people were vaccinated; among the 448 people who have been sickened, 23 have developed severe disease and 12 are in critical condition, raising the prospect of China's first Covid-19 related fatality in nearly seven months.

The mahjong cluster is Yangzhou's first serious outbreak since the pandemic began, and inexperienced officials have already been punished for mishandling the response.

Mass testing efforts - the city's 4.5 million population has undergone six rounds of testing - resulted in more than 40 people infected while waiting in line to be swabbed.

The current Delta outbreak across China has seen more than 1,000 symptomatic infections in less than a month, with cases reaching as far south as Hainan and as far north as Heilongjiang.

Though more than 60 per cent of the population has been vaccinated, the government has defaulted to targeted lockdowns, transport controls and mass testing, insisting that China must stamp out all infection to protect lives, even as many other countries accept that the virus will be endemic.

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2021-08-12 04:12:01Z
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Extreme weather will be a bigger drag on China’s growth than earlier thought - South China Morning Post

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Extreme weather will be a bigger drag on China’s growth than earlier thought  South China Morning PostView Full coverage on Google News
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2021-08-12 04:04:19Z
CAIiELBGCnbmESfIA7llsfplpakqGQgEKhAIACoHCAowief2CjCJ2dUCMKqaxwU

Viral video of 'hugging queue' for Covid-19 vaccine in Malaysia sparks outcry - The Straits Times

KUALA LUMPUR - A viral video showing a group of people queueing in tight proximity to one another outside a vaccination centre in Kuala Lumpur has sparked an outcry and raised concerns of further outbreaks in a country where the authorities are already struggling to bring down the stubbornly high daily Covid-19 cases and deaths.

The seven-minute video, apparently taken outside the Rumah Prihatin @ Grand Seasons hotel public vaccination centre showed people queuing up so closely that at some point, they looked like they were hugging one another.

The video, posted on Instagram on Wednesday (Aug 11), has prompted Deputy Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob to urge the relevant authorities to take action.

"I am shocked to see the video of the situation at the Rumah Prihatin Hotel Grand Seasons... today, which was so crowded. The standard operating procedures (SOPs) have been flouted.

"I hope the authorities can ensure situations where foreign workers are crammed like this will not occur again because it can cause an outbreak.

"I will contact the relevant ministries and the police so that this incident can be handled immediately," Datuk Seri Ismail said in a posting on his Instagram account on Wednesday.

In the video, a man was seen to be dismounting his motorcycle on the side of a road before shouting at the crowd to maintain physical distance. He also asked the patrol officers at the scene to intervene, and made a plea to International Trade and Industries Minister Azmin Ali to "do something", as he said many of those waiting in line appeared to be foreigners.

Later in the video, the man said the police had complained about his motorcycle being parked illegally when they should be more concerned about the long line of people who broke Covid-19 safety protocols.

"Why are you busying yourself with my motorcycle parked on the yellow line, but not the thousands who were queueing like they were hugging one another?" he asked.

"Why do the people in power - from ministers to police - not know how to exercise their powers in situations like this?

"People are dying. Fathers, mothers, children - all these people are dying. Use your powers," the man, visibly upset and in tears, implored as he talked to the camera.

The video, posted on Instagram on Wednesday, has garnered more than four million views. The vast majority of the around 11,000 comments on the post supported the man.

In a separate statement, police said they have deployed a compliance team to control the situation at the PPV.

"Word has been spread to the public in attendance to observe social distancing and wear face masks, as stated in the SOPs.

"The compliance team successfully controlled the situation at the centre until the vaccination programme was over," Dang Wangi district police chief Noor Dellhan Yahaya was quoted by the Malaysiakini news portal as saying.

The hotel on Wednesday attributed the long queue to a misunderstanding that it would provide walk-in vaccination for non-Malaysians.

The crowd had refused to leave despite being asked to disperse by the police, said Rumah Prihatin @ Grand Seasons, which is a charity hotel set up to provide meals, beds, counselling services and vaccines to people affected by the pandemic.

This was due to a misunderstanding "that Rumah Prihatin provides a walk-in vaccine service for non-citizens", it said in a statement, as quoted by the Malay Mail news portal.

"As a result, an unanticipated 'rush crowd' occurred."

The only public vaccination centre accepting walk-in vaccinations for non-Malaysians is at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium, the hotel added.

The man and his wife, who reportedly shot the video, said they returned to the hotel less than an hour later and saw a sizeable number of people remaining outside without social distancing being observed, though the crowd appeared to be smaller.

Malaysia recorded another 20,780 infections on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases to 1.3 million since the start of the pandemic.

There were 211 new deaths reported on Wednesday. The current death toll from Covid-19 in Malaysia stands at 11,373.

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2021-08-12 03:40:45Z
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69-year-old unvaccinated Singaporean man dies from Covid-19; 3 new clusters announced - The Straits Times

SINGAPORE - A 69-year-old Singaporean died from complications due to Covid-19 on Wednesday (Aug 11).

The man, who was not vaccinated, developed symptoms on July 28 and was admitted to Tan Tock Seng Hospital the next day, where he tested positive for the coronavirus, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Wednesday night in its daily update.

He had a history of stroke, diabetes mellitus, hypertension and high cholesterol.

This brings the total number of Covid-19 deaths in Singapore to 43.

Three new clusters were also announced by the ministry. One is at Superland Pre-School in Kreta Ayer Community Centre, with four cases linked to it.

The other two are linked to two cases, and have a total of nine infections linked to them.

A total of 63 new cases were announced on Wednesday. Two of these were imported, while the other 61 are locally transmitted.

Of the locally transmitted cases, 17 are currently unlinked.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased to 448 cases in the past week, from 758 cases in the week before.

The number of unlinked cases in the community has also fallen to 129 cases in the past week, from 227 cases in the week before.

Currently, 508 cases are warded in hospital. There are 35 cases of serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation, and eight people are in critical condition in the intensive care unit (ICU).

This is a drop from 11 in the ICU on Tuesday. Out of the 43 serious cases, seven are fully vaccinated.

Of those who have fallen very ill, 36 are seniors above 60 years of age, of whom 29 are completely unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

"There is continuing evidence that almost all fully vaccinated individuals do not suffer serious disease when infected, unless if they had underlying medical conditions that made them more susceptible," said MOH.

It added that over the last 28 days, 8.7 per cent of those who are unvaccinated became severely ill or died, while the proportion of those fully vaccinated in this category is 0.9 per cent.

As at Tuesday, a total of 8,193,151 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered under the national vaccination programme, covering 4,383,631 individuals, with 3,936,162 people having completed the full vaccination regimen.

In addition, 138,879 doses of other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organisation's Emergency Use Listing have been administered, covering 82,406 individuals.

In total, 72 per cent of those here have received two doses of the vaccines, and 81 per cent have received at least one dose.

Read the full MOH press release here.

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2021-08-11 14:21:12Z
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69-year-old man dies from COVID-19 complications; 61 new locally transmitted cases in Singapore - CNA

THREE NEW CLUSTERS

Three new COVID-19 clusters were identified, including a cluster of four cases linked to Superland pre-school at Kreta Ayer Community Centre. MOH did not provide details on the other two new clusters.

Two more infections were linked to the cluster at Jurong Fishery Port/Hong Lim Market and Food Centre, bringing the size of the cluster to 1,151 cases. It remains the largest active cluster in Singapore.

Eight more cases were linked to the cluster at Westlite Juniper Dormitory, taking it to 47 infections.

There were 118 active clusters in Singapore as of Wednesday.

Overall, the number of new cases in the community has decreased to 448 cases in the past week from 758 cases in the week before, said MOH.

The number of unlinked cases in the community also decreased to 129 cases in the past week from 227 cases in the week before.

EIGHT IN CRITICAL CONDITION

A total of 508 cases were warded in hospital. There were eight cases in critical condition in the intensive care unit and 35 cases of serious illness requiring oxygen supplementation.

Of the 43 cases, seven were fully vaccinated. Those who have fallen very ill included 36 people above the age of 60, of whom 29 were partially vaccinated or completely not vaccinated.

"There is continuing evidence that almost all fully-vaccinated individuals do not suffer serious disease when infected, unless if they had underlying medical conditions that made them more susceptible," said MOH.

Over the last 28 days, the percentage of unvaccinated local cases who became severely ill or died was 8.7 per cent, while that for the fully vaccinated was 0.9 per cent.

72 PER CENT OF POPULATION FULLY VACCINATED

More than 8.1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered under the national vaccination programme, with 3,936,162 people having completed the full vaccination regimen as of Tuesday.

In addition, 138,879 doses of other vaccines recognised in the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing have been administered as of Tuesday, covering 82,406 people.

In total, about 72 per cent of Singapore's population has completed their full regimen or received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, while 81 per cent has received at least one dose.

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2021-08-11 14:31:35Z
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Malaysia's King asks PM Muhyiddin to bring forward vote of confidence: Reports - CNA

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2021-08-11 13:17:56Z
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