Singapore sends more than 120000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Thailand - CNA

Last month, Thailand said it was seeking to borrow 150,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from Bhutan amid a supply shortage in the country. 

On Monday, Thailand reported 10,288 new COVID-19 infections and 101 more deaths. 

Thai authorities on Monday also announced that it was preparing to downscale its COVID-19 quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated international tourists and reopen the country in four phases, starting from October.

Other countries have received contributions from Singapore over the last few months.

On Sunday, MFA said Singapore has contributed an "assistance package" to Nepal to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The package consists of medical supplies, including diagnostic tests, masks, polyethylene aprons, thermometers, and a polymerase chain reaction machine.

Malaysia and Brunei are also among other countries to which Singapore has contributed COVID-19 vaccines. 

Singapore last month announced that it will send 500,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to Australia as part of a "dose sharing" agreement, with the same amount to be returned in December.

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2021-09-27 12:38:00Z
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Thailand to reduce COVID-19 quarantine period, reopen to international visitors in 4 phases - CNA

Besides adjusting the quarantine requirements, Thailand has also laid out a plan to reopen to international tourism in four phases.

In each stage, different provinces will be added to the so-called Blue Zone, where travel is not restricted and various social activities as well as gatherings of no more than 500 people are allowed.

The initial pilot phase is from Oct 1 to Oct 31. It covers Phuket and parts of Krabi, Phang Nga and Surat Thani such as the popular islands of Phi Phi, Samui and Pha-ngan. 

While parts of these provinces have reopened to international travellers since July, others still need to speed up their vaccination programmes and ensure the COVID-19 situation remains under control for the full reopening next month.

The second phase is from Nov 1 to Nov 30. It covers ten provinces where income from international visitors usually makes up at least 15 per cent of their tourism revenue. They include Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Chonburi, among others.

CCSA's announcement confirmed a change of plan for the Thai capital, where reopening to international tourism was initially scheduled for mid-October.

“We are confident that on Oct 15, Bangkok will be able to reopen to international tourists,” said Tourism and Sports Minister Pipat Ratchakitprakan on Sep 15 after a discussion with Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang.

At least 70 per cent of Bangkok residents were expected to have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by that time. However, based on CCSA’s Monday announcement, its reopening has been postponed to November.

The third phase is from Dec 1 to Dec 31 and the last phase takes effect from January 2022 onwards.

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2021-09-27 10:16:00Z
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With over 2.19 billion shots in arms, China has fully vaccinated 78 per cent of its population - South China Morning Post

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2021-09-27 06:39:46Z
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China says it will clamp down on abortions for 'non-medical purposes' - CNA

BEIJING: China will reduce the number of abortions performed for "non-medical purposes", the country's Cabinet said in new guidelines issued on Monday (Sep 27), that it said were aimed at improving women's reproductive health.

China has already enacted strict measures aimed at preventing sex-selective abortions, and health authorities also warned in 2018 that the use of abortion to end unwanted pregnancies was harmful to women's bodies and risks causing infertility.

The State Council said the new guidelines would aim to improve women's overall access to pre-pregnancy health care services.

Think-tanks and policy researchers have identified China's declining birth rate as a major social policy challenge in the coming decades.

Although China remains the world's most populous nation, the latest census showed population growth from 2011 to 2020 was the slowest since the 1950s, and was expected to slow even more within a few years.

After years of trying to limit population growth, Beijing is now promising new policies aimed at encouraging families to have more children.

It said in June that it would now allow all couples to have three children instead of two. New policies designed to reduce the financial burden of raising children are also being introduced.

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2021-09-27 03:21:00Z
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German election: Surprises but no radical shift as Germans vote for predictability - The Straits Times

BERLIN - With a strong centre and a weakening of the political fringes, Germans decided not to abandon the path of stability in Sunday's (Sept 26) national elections.

However, in the first polls in 16 years where Chancellor Angela Merkel was not on the ballot, voters still had some surprises in store.

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2021-09-26 23:27:31Z
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German SPD edges ahead of conservatives in vote to decide Merkel successor - CNA

BERLIN: Germany's Social Democrats narrowly won Sunday's (Sep 26) national election, projected results showed, and claimed a "clear mandate" to lead a government for the first time since 2005 and to end 16 years of conservative-led rule under Angela Merkel.

The centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) were on track for 26 per cent of the vote, ahead of 24.5 per cent for Merkel's CDU/CSU conservative bloc, projections for broadcaster ZDF showed, but both groups believed they could lead the next government.

With neither major bloc commanding a majority, and both reluctant to repeat their awkward "grand coalition" of the past four years, the most likely outcome is a three-way alliance led by either the Social Democrats or Merkel's conservatives.

Agreeing a new coalition could take months, and will likely involve the smaller Greens and liberal Free Democrats (FDP).

"We are ahead in all the surveys now," the Social Democrats' chancellor candidate, Olaf Scholz, said in a round table discussion with other candidates after the vote.

"It is an encouraging message and a clear mandate to make sure that we get a good, pragmatic government for Germany," he added after earlier addressing jubilant SPD supporters.

The SPD's rise heralds a swing left for Germany and marks a remarkable comeback for the party, which has recovered some 10 points in support in just three months to improve on its 20.5 per cent result in the 2017 national election.

Scholz, 63, would become the fourth post-war SPD chancellor after Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt and Gerhard Schroeder. Finance minister in Merkel's cabinet, he is a former mayor of Hamburg.

Scholz's conservative rival Armin Laschet, signalled his bloc was not ready yet to concede, though his supporters were subdued.

"It hasn't always been the first-placed party that provided the chancellor," Laschet, 60, told the round table. "I want a government where every partner is involved, where everyone is visible - not one where only the chancellor gets to shine," he said in an early attempt to woo smaller parties.

Schmidt ruled in the late 1970s and early 1980s in coalition with the FDP even though his Social Democrats had fewer parliamentary seats than the conservative bloc.

COALITION FOR CHRISTMAS?

Attention will now shift to informal discussions followed by more formal coalition negotiations, which could take months, leaving Merkel in charge in a caretaker role.

Scholz and Laschet both said they would aim to strike a coalition deal before Christmas.

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2021-09-26 18:30:00Z
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Canada foreign minister says eyes wide open when it comes to normalising China ties - CNA

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Garneau received the two Canadians on Saturday when they arrived in Calgary, Alberta, after spending more than 1,000 days in solitary confinement.

Spavor was accused of supplying photographs of military equipment to Kovrig and sentenced in August to 11 years in jail. Kovrig had been awaiting sentencing.

Trudeau, who won a third term last Monday after a tight election race, had vowed to improve ties with China after becoming prime minister in 2015, building on his father's success in establishing diplomatic ties with China in 1970.

But even before Meng's arrest, Canada's repeated questioning of China's human rights positions had irked Beijing, and the two countries have failed to come closer.

China has always denied any link between Meng's extradition case and the detention of the two Canadians, but Garneau said that "the immediate return of the two Michaels linked" it to Meng's case in a "very direct manner".

Garneau said he had heard about the deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) several weeks ago, which opened the door to the return of the two men.

Canadian Ambassador to the United States Kirsten Hillman denied Washington had made the release of Kovrig and Spavor a condition for the resolution of the charges against Meng.

"Absolutely not. The DPA and the resolution of the charges against Ms Meng was a completely independent process, and it was proceeding as it did," Hillman told Canadian broadcaster CTV.

Garneau also said he did not think the timing of the men's return had anything to do with that of the federal election.

"I think it just worked out that way."

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2021-09-26 21:56:41Z
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