A total of 1788 Covid-19 lab tests from 26 to 27 May resulted in 96 new Covid positive cases, raising the rates to 5.37 percent.
The current situation is that Myanmar can only conduct lab tests some number between 1000 to 2000 per day. Before May 27, Covid-19 infection rates were at 1 to 2 percent but spiked to 5.37 percent after May 27.
The next day, it increased to 5.85 percent with 72 new positive cases out of a total 1230 tests.
According to the Ministry of Health and Sports at a meeting regarding the control and prevention of Covid-19 in Nay Pyi Taw, most new cases are from Sagaing Region's Tamu Township and Chin State's Tonzam and Kyikhar. The union minister of MOHS says that needed equipment and assitance are being sent to those areas as well as conducting public knowledge campaigns against the pandemic.
The MOHS also said that it will promptly work toward identifying whether a new mutant strain is at work. According to MRTV's news announcement on May 28, those Tonzam and Tamu has been placed under a Stay at Home order to combat the spread of Covid-19, imposing regulations that limits people out and about by limiting persons from each household to make grocery trips and so on.
Covid-19 patients in the ICU.
MRTV news announcement also said that breaching Stay at Home regulations will be punished, such as not informing relevant authorities of going outside, under extant laws.
MOHS data says that there are now a total of 143486 Covid-19 positive cases with 132279 allowed to discharge from the hospital. There also have been a total of 2617696 total lab tests conducted.
The data from World Health Organisation (WHO) says that Myanmar stands at 3rd place, following Indonesia and Phillippines, regarding total Covid-19 deaths within Asean countries. Myanmar ranked fifth on the daily tally by WHO on May 28, following neighbouring Thailand that are now at 144,000 total Covid-19 cases so far.
As of May 28, WHO data claims that the total of Covid-19 cases are as follows in Asean nations: 1803361 in Indoensia, 1209154 in Phillippines, 549514 in Malaysia, 144976 in Thailand, 143486 in Myanmar, 61970 in Singapore, 28237 in Cambodia, 6396 in Vietnam, 1905 in Laos and 241 in Brunei.
Myanmar's MOHS had said that vaccination programs are still ongoing in the country and with the first wave of Covishield vaccines done, the second wave will begin on May 31 at the Myanmar convention Center (MCC). It says that there were around 1.7 million that already had both waves of the Covidshield shots and those that had only recieved the first one will have to go to MCC for their second jab.
Covishield is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), after buying the IP of the Covid-19 vaccine jointly developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. The MOHS had said that Chinese-made and donated Sinopharm will be arriving in limited capacity and education sector staff will get the first priority, urging the staff to not miss the chance as vaccines will be distributed according to infection rates of each state and regions in limited capacity numbering only in hundred thousands.
Five hundred thousand doses of Sinopharm arrived in Myanmar on May 2.
As many of the world's nations face a resurgence of Covid-19 cases and in many places, such as India, Britain, are dealing with yet another mutant strain such as the B1617 variance of the coronavirus despite already having a much larger availability of vaccines at their disposal.
Myanmar will definitely have to step up its attempts to control and prevent further catastrophic spread of the pandemic in the country by locking down border gates and travel activities as well as making sure citizens will follow the guidelines set by the MOHS.
