Tuesday, 19 Nov 2024

Asia

Asia News – Get latest breaking news & top stories today in Asia, South-East Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Australia/New Zealand at…

Help available for Covid-19 patients with disabilities to recover at home: MOH

SINGAPORE – Covid-19 patients with disabilities who are eligible to recover at home will be assigned a home recovery care manager, who will link them up with various community services and resources, among other things. Telemedicine providers will also be informed of their disability so that they can better communicate with patients using the most […]

Philippines to buy extra 20 million doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine

MANILA (REUTERS) – The Philippines will buy an additional 20 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, seeking to fully inoculate more than 80 per cent of its population by mid-2022, a government official said on Sunday (Nov 28). A deal has been signed with Pfizer, bringing the government’s total purchases […]

From house visits to Zoom meetings: Keeping up with community policing

SINGAPORE – Inspector Lam Yew Keong is no stranger to policing in a pandemic. He was deployed to Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre during the Sars outbreak in 2003 to prevent unauthorised personnel from entering the market. “My family was constantly worried as I frequently came into contact with strangers or worked in an environment that might […]

Australia detects first Covid-19 Omicron infections

SYDNEY (AFP, REUTERS) – Health officials in Australia said Sunday (Nov 28) they had detected the Covid-19 Omicron strain for the first time after testing two passengers from southern Africa who flew into Sydney.  The eastern state of New South Wales’ health authority said it had conducted urgent genomic testing and confirmed the new strain was […]

Urgent work needs to be done to understand new Covid-19 variant Omicron: NCID

SINGAPORE – A lot of urgent work needs to be done to further understand the new coronavirus variant Omicron, said the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) on Sunday (Nov 28). It added that although Omicron emerged recently, the variant should still be detected on a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. In response to queries […]

SIA converts some S'pore-S. Africa flights to cargo-only in light of Omicron variant

SINGAPORE – Singapore Airlines (SIA) has converted some passenger services to South Africa into cargo-only flights after the detection of new coronavirus variant Omicron triggered global concerns and bans on travellers from several African countries. These are flights between Singapore and Johannesburg and Cape Town, SIA told The Straits Times on Saturday (Nov 27). Customers […]

Hong Kong protest film wins at Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan

TAIPEI (REUTERS) – A documentary about pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong won a high-profile award at the Golden Horse Awards, the Chinese-speaking world’s version of the Oscars, in Taiwan on Saturday (Nov 27). Kiwi Chow’s Revolution of Our Times was named best documentary, prompting a long round of applause and shouts of support for Hong Kong […]

This week's top reads from The Straits Times

Good evening! Catch up on some of the week’s top reads. More information about Omicron needed to decide if S’pore Covid-19 rules should change Other things to monitor would be how fast it spreads, and whether those infected would suffer a more severe form of Covid-19. READ MORE HERE More in Singapore using e-vaporisers despite […]

Macau police question junket mogul Chau after China city issues warrant

HONG KONG (REUTERS) – Macau said the police were questioning Alvin Chau on Saturday (Nov 27), after a Chinese city issued an arrest warrant for the junket mogul, accusing him of operating gambling activities in mainland China. The Macau government said in a statement that Chau, founder of the special administrative region’s biggest junket operator […]