SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): The Covid-19 pandemic hit Singapore households hard last year, with overall median household income from work falling by 2.5 per cent in nominal terms from S$9,425 to $9,189.
Workers place barriers outside the closed Huanan Seafood wholesale market during a visit by WHO members in Wuhan, on Jan 31, 2021.- AFP
BEIJING (The Straits Times/ANN): The WHO mission to Wuhan may be a hallmark moment as the global community seeks to find answers to where the coronavirus came from, but expectations should be tempered, say experts. We should see this effort as very much the beginning of the investigation, said Professor Dale Fisher, an infectious disease expert from the National University Hospital in Singapore who was part of the WHO technical mission to China in February 2020.
Since last week, the international team of experts has visited the Huanan seafood market, where the earliest outbreak was documented, another wet market, two hospitals that had treated Covid-19 patients and a cold-chain storage facility.
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): Singapore has approved Moderna s Covid-19 vaccine for use here, with the first shipment expected to arrive in March.
In a statement on Wednesday (Feb 3), the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) said its review of the available clinical data found that the vaccine demonstrated a high efficacy of 94 per cent, with the benefits outweighing the risks.
This means that there is a 94 per cent reduction of symptomatic Covid-19 disease in a vaccinated group of people, compared with a similarly sized group of unvaccinated people, it said.
The figure is based on a Phase 3 clinical trial in the United States which involved over 30,000 people aged 18 to 95.
A person holds up a placard depicting Aung San Suu Kyi after the military seized power in a coup in Myanmar, outside United Nations venue in Bangkok, Thailand on Feb 3,2021. - Reuters
BANGKOK (The Straits Times/ANN): Myanmar s military government has filed criminal charges against civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi for breaches of import-export laws, according to a police document.
She has been remanded in detention until Feb 15, the document said.
It said the military had raided her home and found hand-held radios that were illegally imported and used without permission.
Military rule was reimposed in Myanmar on Monday (Feb 1) when soldiers detained Ms Suu Kyi, 75, head of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, and other lawmakers in a series of dawn raids.
People walk past City Hall in Yangon on Feb 2, 2021, a day after Myanmar s military seized power in a bloodless coup, detaining democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and imposing a one-year state of emergency. - AFP
BANGKOK (The Straits Times/ANN): Myanmar s ruling junta on Monday (Feb 1) announced a purge of Aung San Suu Kyi s government, removing 24 ministers and deputies and naming 11 replacements in its new administration after seizing power in a coup.
The announcement was made on the military-run Myawaddy Television and included new appointments in the portfolios for finance, health, information, foreign affairs, defence, borders and interior.