Cambodia prison 'broke down' due to Covid-19, Malaysia records record number of infections

Reuters news agency quoted the Malaysian Ministry of Health as saying that in the past 24 hours, the country recorded 9,020 more infections and 98 deaths, bringing the total number of people testing positive and dying from the epidemic to 1,020.Covid-19up to 558,534 and 2,650 respectively.

According to Reuters, the Covid-19 epidemic situation inMalaysiaRecently, there have been many complicated developments, when most of the infections recorded in recent weeks are related to highly contagious variants.

In response to the pandemic, Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced on May 28 a plan to impose a two-week nationwide lockdown, starting June 1. This decision will apply to all activities in many socio-economic sectors, except for establishments providing essential services.

“Although the announcement of the nationwide lockdown was a bit late, the central government made the right choice. Most public health experts had expected the lockdown to be imposed early last week. We really hope that the public will strictly adhere to the preventive measures,” Malaysian Association of Public Doctors president Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar told the Strait Times.

“This is a time when people need to understand that our country is in a ‘boiling water, burning fire’ situation and is one of the countries most affected by the pandemic. The frontline health system has been ‘overwhelmed’, and the number of deaths due to Covid-19 is too high,” Mr. Ariffin Omar added.

Cambodian prisons "broken" due to Covid-19

Cambodian authorities have reported a number of Covid-19 cases in Kandal prison in recent days. At a press conference on May 26, the head of Cambodia’s prison management agency, Chhem Savuth, stated that “the cases among prisoners and prison guards at Kandal prison cannot spread widely and can be controlled, there will be no problem and they will prevent the epidemic.”

However, data from the Cambodian Ministry of Health published by the Khmer Times on May 29 showed that the number of infections in Kandal provincial prison had increased to 298 cases, nearly three times higher than the previous preliminary report of only 106 cases.

Patients in Kandal prison are currently being treated by doctors dispatched from the provincial health department, and security forces have been deployed in the area outside the prison to ensure the disease cannot spread.

Data from Worldometers as of 5:00 a.m. on May 30 shows that Cambodia has recorded 588 new Covid-19 infections and 7 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections and deaths due to Covid-19 to 28,825 and 203, respectively.

Japan maintains epidemic prevention measures after lifting state of emergency

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu said on May 29 that some Covid-19 prevention measures may continue to be applied after June 20, even if the state of emergency is lifted in Tokyo, Osaka and eight other prefectures of the country.

Specifically, the Japanese government may downgrade the state of emergency to a semi-emergency, which would allow local authorities to impose restrictions such as requiring restaurants to close earlier.

The above statement was made by Mr. Kato Katsunobu just one day after the Japanese Government decided to extend the state of emergency in many provinces in the country for another 3 weeks until June 20, just over a month before the opening of the Olympic Games.

Some other developments about the epidemic

Updated at 5am on May 30 by the global statistics site Worldometers, the Covid-19 epidemic is raging in 220 countries and territories, infecting more than 170.5 million people and claiming the lives of more than 3.5 million patients. The number of recoveries reached over 152.7 million cases.

India continues to experience a terrible day with the number of new infections reaching more than 174,000 and the number of deaths exceeding 3,600. Thus, up to now, the country has a total of nearly 27.9 million positive cases and more than 326,000 deaths.

Brazil also faces serious spread and death when recording 79,000 new infections to the list of more than 16.4 million patients, and nearly 1,900 victims to the total of 461,000 people who died from Covid-19.