The Virus Outbreak Thread

1. India has developed its first home Covid test kit from its own industries.
    
2. Around two million Covid tests were done in India, the highest record in a single day. Today’s recoveries in India have outnumbered today’s new cases, and active cases are starting to decline.
    
3. Another 559,200 doses of AstraZenaca have arrived in Malaysia today. The same amount will be delivered on a daily basis, with another 600,000 doses next month, and 2 million doses of Pfizer will arrive in Malaysia on July.

1. ICU beds in the Klang Valley are being overloaded, at 113% over the national average of 93%.
    
2. Foreigners in Thailand can register for vaccinations from June 7.
    
3. India will begin manufacturing its own Sputnik vaccines from August onwards. It will begin with 850 million doses.
    
4. A stricter lockdown is imposed: more people must work at home, more roadblocks and cops, only 50% capacity allowed at public transport, and eateries must close at 8pm.

1. From May 25 onwards, all public transport can only take in half of their usual passengers, including ferries and trains. Taxis can only take in up to 2 passengers, including vans.
    
2. Shopping malls in the Peninsula and Labuan must close at 8 pm, with the restaurants and markets. Pharmacies can stay open to 10 pm.
    
   However, this may lead to some chaos as people would rush to buy dinner.
    
3. Farmers and fishermen are required to continue working to feed the people during the MCO.
    
4. A total of 76,000 people have been vaccinated today, compared with the previous rates of 30,000 to 40,000. Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz also said that Malaysia’s vaccination rates are ahead of Thailand and Indonesia, even though the current percentage is lower. We are still behind Cambodia, Laos, and Singapore.
    
5. For the first time since April 1, today’s Covid infections have dropped below 3000 cases in New Delhi, India.
    
6. Workers in India can also bring their family members to be vaccinated in their workplaces.
    
   

1. Shoppers can only use the malls for a maximum of 2 hours
    
2. The nationwide MCO lockdown might last for two weeks.
    
3. AstraZenaca registrations are now open for elderly people aged 60 and above.
    
4. Many people on Twitter are upset that the immunisation programme is focused on elderly people. They instead get a response that says that “elderly people have a higher risk from the virus”. If the slots are not fully booked, it will become open to the public on 26th May. The vaccinations will begin from June 7 to July 27.

1. Germany’s Covid cases are going down, so shops and restaurants are starting to reopen. They even included hotels and swimming pools.
    
2. Sabah will use a different MCO lockdown on May 25, a CMCO (conditional movement control order).
    

• Stalls, restaurants, and malls can open until 9pm  
• Restaurants can open until 10pm  
• Customers can only be within shops, malls, and restaurants for one hour

1. At the same time as with the Covid cases, many Covid patients in India are affected by a black fungus infection. The weakened immune systems caused by Covid infections allowed the virus to attack bodies more easily.
    
2. Casirivimab and Imdevimab antibodies, an antibody cocktail by the pharmacy company Roche India, is available in two batches (May and June) for Indian Covid patients.
    
3. Travellers from Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh have their travel quarantine extended to 21 days from 14 days.
    
4. Malaysia now has the second-highest active Covid infections in Southeast Asia.
    
5. Selangor’s state government is considering doing a house to house check to monitor any Covid cases.
    
6. Vaccinators are required to show the syringe and the prescribed quantity before they give it to their patients. After the injection, they are required to show the emptied syringe as proof.
    
7. The Malaysian government now allows private groups to buy their own Covid vaccines, so that the vaccination of Malaysia will go faster.
    
8. There is an outbreak of yellow fungus in India, or mucormycosis. Like the black fungus, it also attacks people who recover from Covid, taking advantage of weakened immune systems.
    
9. Bharat Biotech has sent requests to the WHO for its vaccine, Covaxin, for emergency use. This Indian vaccine is already receiving regulatory approval in 11 countries and interest in several companies in 11 countries.
    
10. According to a certain article that’s upset over Western reports about the Indian government’s current efforts:
     

India has already vaccinated 170 million of its citizens (within almost the same span of time that the USA vaccinated 170 million of its citizens): this is commendable in a country of 1.4 billion. India will vaccinate the rest in the forthcoming months. The government has worked phenomenally hard to set up oxygen-manufacturing plants, procured and transported hundreds of thousands of oxygen concentrators and other essential equipment, and set up innumerable field hospitals. This time around, a few corporates have generously pitched in. Dr Devi Shetty, a world-renowned cardiac surgeon, and head of the Supreme Court of India’s task force on the pandemic refutes claims that the Indian government is doing nothing: “Our government has moved heaven and earth to get the oxygen to the hospitals… If the whole country is falling sick, there’s no infrastructure in the whole world that can manage.”

1. Today at 12 pm, a third round of AstraZenaca vaccines was available for bookings. Even as it was ruined by glitches, all of its slots were full by the time it closed at 1pm. I was one of those that signed up for this programme.
    
2. More and more people are calling for a 3-week lockdown due to cases reaching over 7,200 today. They also requested for food delivery services to continue to 10 pm and for more bread to be produced.