Southeast Asia: 363 more deaths; Malaysia urges citizens to get booster shots
According to statistics website worldometers.info, on November 21, ASEAN member countries recorded 28,890 COVID-19 cases and 363 deaths. The total number of people infected in ASEAN since the beginning of the epidemic is 13,785,195 cases, of which 287,730 people have died.
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| Medical staff inject COVID-19 vaccine for people in Bangkok, Thailand on November 18, 2021. Photo: THX/TTXVN |
On November 21, Thailand continued to have a high number of new cases compared to most ASEAN countries. The country recorded 7,006 new cases, bringing the total number of cases since the beginning of the epidemic to 2,064,581.
In Malaysia, the country had 5,859 new cases, ranking third in ASEAN on November 21, after Vietnam and Thailand. To date, Malaysia has recorded a total of 2,581,747 COVID-19 cases.
The Philippines recorded 2,227 new cases, bringing the total number of cases since the beginning of the pandemic to 2,826,410.
Next are Singapore with 1,931 new cases; Laos with 921 new cases; Myanmar with 625 new cases; Indonesia with 314 new cases; Brunei with 77 new cases and Cambodia with 41 new cases.
In terms of deaths, most ASEAN countries recorded new deaths: Philippines (175 cases), Vietnam (76 cases), Malaysia (38 cases), Thailand (29 cases), Singapore (13 cases), Indonesia (11 cases), Myanmar (11 cases), Laos (6 cases) and Cambodia (4 cases).
Malaysia urges people to get booster shots
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| Medical staff inject COVID-19 vaccine to people in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on March 2, 2021. Photo: AFP/TTXVN |
Malaysian Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has urged Malaysians to get a COVID-19 vaccine booster as soon as possible.
On Twitter, Minister Khairy said that the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, especially the Sinovac vaccine, will start to decline after a few months. Therefore, he called on people to get a booster dose of the vaccine as soon as possible.
Malaysia began rolling out booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines in October, prioritizing the elderly, immunocompromised people and all frontline workers. More than a million booster shots have been administered in the country so far.
Data collected from November 1-20 in Malaysia showed that the COVID-19 death rate among unvaccinated adults was 305.2 per 1 million population, 14.5 times higher than that of adults who had completed vaccination. According to Dr. Amar Singh HSS, in the first 20 days of November, Malaysia recorded 827 adult deaths from COVID-19, of which 315 were unvaccinated (38.2%), 41 had received the first dose (5%) and 471 had completed vaccination (57.1%).
Currently, Malaysia has 1,031,946 unvaccinated adults and 22,379,626 adults who have completed vaccination.
Most new cases in Laos are community cases.
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| Spraying disinfectant to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Vientiane, Laos on September 30, 2021. Photo: THX/TTXVN |
The Lao Ministry of Health said on November 21 that in the past 24 hours, the country recorded 921 new COVID-19 cases, of which only 10 imported cases were immediately quarantined, the rest were community infections. Thus, the total number of COVID-19 infections in Laos has reached 62,160 cases.
According to the Lao Ministry of Health, after 5 days of recording 4-digit numbers, the number of COVID-19 cases in Laos has now dropped to 3 digits but remains high; down 423 cases compared to November 20. The capital Vientiane continues to lead the country with 359 community cases in one day, down 277 cases compared to November 20.
Notably, Laos has just recorded 6 more deaths due to COVID-19, bringing the total number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to 132. Thus, in just 2 days, the country has had 13 deaths due to COVID-19.
The Lao Ministry of Health said the number of COVID-19 deaths in the country continues to rise, most of them are elderly or people with underlying diseases who have not been vaccinated. Among these cases, many have never left home but still contracted COVID-19 from family members.
In light of the above situation, the Lao Government has requested localities to compile a list of adults (over 18 years old) who have or have not been vaccinated to promote a comprehensive vaccination program for this group, increase vaccination for high-risk groups; and at the same time, recommend that people continue to strictly comply with disease prevention regulations even after receiving enough doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
Cambodia controls “February 20 community incident”
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| People wear masks to prevent COVID-19 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, November 17, 2021. Photo: THX/TTXVN |
The prolonged crisis following the “community incident on February 20” in Cambodia has been brought under control, as the country has continuously recorded a low number of new COVID-19 cases per day of less than 50 (based on PCR test results), extending the new normal and restoring socio-economic activities.
Cambodia's Ministry of Health on November 21 confirmed 41 more COVID-19 cases and four deaths, including three unvaccinated people, bringing the total number of COVID-19 deaths in the country to 2,900.
The streets of Phnom Penh are bustling again, a sign of hope for the capital's recovery as the worst of the pandemic has passed. Thanks to a rapid and effective vaccination campaign, Cambodia has achieved herd immunity ahead of schedule and is now allowing all sectors to reopen.
Cambodia has received a total of 40 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines through three sources: bilateral supply contracts, the COVAX vaccine allocation mechanism and donations, of which more than 90% came from China.
Since the start of the large-scale COVID-19 vaccination campaign from February 10, 2021 to November 20, 14,090,184 people in Cambodia have been vaccinated, not far from the target of completing vaccination for 14.5 million people (equivalent to 91% of the population).
