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Amid positive developments in the global search for a vaccine, the Health Department is polling Yangon hospitals for staff lists in preparation of administering it to health care workers. Though no fully vetted vaccine is available yet, some hospital administrators said they were given a deadline of noon today to return their lists. “We are just asking for a list first to see who needs to be vaccinated first, it was a request from the ministry,” said Win Maw Oo, director of pediatrics hospital in Yangon’s South Okkalapa township. He said that he listed 160 health care workers at his facility, even though it’s likely a preliminary measure as no vaccine has been...

A fugitive simian is back behind bars after leading officials on a five-day chase across Yangon. An official from the Yangon Zoo yesterday told Coconuts Yangon that the monkey, whose devil-may-care attitude and anti-authoritarian streak have made him an online folk hero, was finally caught after many near misses. “He was captured yesterday afternoon,” said the zoo worker who would not divulge his name. “He wasn’t from our zoo. Someone might have adopted him and set him free. We have to keep him for now until his owner comes for him.” In recent days, monkey sightings were reported in several townships. On Friday, he was cruising around 94th Street and the...

  After the first wave of coronavirus hit Myanmar in March, 36-year-old Ma Suu closed her salad stall and pawned her jewellery and gold to buy food to eat. During the second wave, when the government issued a stay-home order in September for Yangon, Ma Suu shut her stall again and sold her clothes, plates and pots. With nothing left to sell, her husband, an out of work construction labourer, has resorted to hunting for food in the open drains by the slum where they live on the outskirts of Myanmar’s largest city. “People are eating rats and snakes,” Ma Suu said through tears. “Without an income, they need to eat like that to feed their children.” They...

When Hla, 19, tried to go back to work seven months ago after having a baby, there were no jobs. Hundreds of garment factories in Myanmar had closed after western fashion brands cancelled orders due to the pandemic, leaving thousands of women jobless. As lockdown gripped Yangon, her marriage broke down, her husband left, and her father had to sell his trishaw – no longer able to take passengers in the city. Her parents and baby were hungry. Five months ago, she became a sex worker. “I feel very scared,” she says. “Since I’m always working in the dark, I try to be careful. I do this with my family in mind, thinking about how I’m going to feed...

A woman in a village in Myanmar near the Three Pagodas border crossing in Sangkhlaburi district has been confirmed infected with Covid-19, according to an official report from Myanmar. The report said the 22-year-old woman was admitted to Phayathonezu Hospital after developing coronavirus symptoms. She had previously travelled to Yangon. Samples of her saliva were sent to Yangon Hospital for testing. The hospital on Monday confirmed the woman had been infected with Covid-19. She was then transferred to another hospital in Phayathonezu township for treatment. Officials were looking for people who had been in contact with her, and they would be quarantined for 14 days for...

  Thein Khin, a 100-year-old woman in Myanmar who beat coronavirus infection, thinks days during World War -2 were worse and coronavirus pandemic is nothing in comparison though no medicine and vaccine have yet been made available. She was asymptomatic and was kept in isolation after having been found positive for the infection. Virus had spread among four generations of her family and she says that she was more worried about her grandchildren. "I felt nothing. I was eating well, showering myself and walking as normal," she said at her home in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, surrounded by small children. "If I suffered from this virus, I would be lying and moaning on the bed. But I...

“I was concerned that I might get infected. Everyone was afraid,” says 32-year-old World Health Organization (WHO) data collector Myat Mon Yee. Since March, Ms. Mon Yee, a computer studies graduate from South Dagon Township in Yangon, has been working at the South Okkalapa Hospital in the former capital. The hospital was planned as the Women’s and Children's Hospital but has been transformed into a COVID-19 treatment centre. Not surprisingly, she was initially quite concerned about working with an infectious disease about which very little was known, except that it was killing people and making others very sick: front line health workers throughout the world have been...

 Thaw Lay, a high school student from Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, knew that this school year would be unlike any other. “I was excited, but I also knew that things would be a little different, when school reopened later this year”, he recalls. Thaw Lay and his fellow students face unprecedented levels of disruption to their education: on 21 July, following a slowdown in new local transmissions of the virus, the Ministry of Education announced a phased reopening, starting with high schools. “From school closures to disruptions in the ongoing reforms, we are facing one of the greatest crises in the education sector today”, said Min Jeong Kim, Head of the UN...

Myanmar's daily count of confirmed COVID-19 cases is rising rapidly. With case numbers doubling every week recently, opposition parties are calling for the November general elections to be postponed. In six weeks parliamentary elections will be held to determine who governs Myanmar for the next five years. In 2015, enthusiasm was in the air. That year, the country's first democratic elections were held, with the National League for Democracy fully participating after decades of military rule. This time around, the feeling is subdued. The campaign officially kicked-off on Sept. 8, but large gatherings are prohibited in Yangon, the country's biggest city. Street corners do not have...

The Yangon Region Government has approved new foreign-owned garment businesses amid growing domestic shortages. According to the Yangon Region Government, the garment and wool cloth manufacturing of Create Beauty ( Myanmar), Nay Shwe Lin, Tanbo HK, Myanmar Tencent Fashion and Maiyibei(Yangon) Garment Manufacturing were approved to operate. In the meeting of the Yangon Region Investment Committee which was held on March 13, the Yangon region government has approved manufacturing and selling of motor vehicles, livestock support services, manufacturing various kinds of shoes, manufacturing and selling of steel parts and the manufacturing of electrical goods. These businesses and foreign...