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Malaysia unveils RM250 billion economic stimulus package as COVID-19 cases surge KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today announced a RM250 billion economic stimulus package to cushion the economic impact of the Covid-19 outbreak. Muhyiddin announced that the economic aid, dubbed the People-Centric Economic Stimulus package (Prihatin), will benefit all segment of the society. He said RM128 billion will go toward the people’s welfare, RM100 billion to supporting businesses including Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and RM2 billion to strengthening the country's economy. The prime minister announced cash handouts totaling some RM10 billion for the lower-income B40 and middle-income M40 groups in view of the Covid-19 crisis. He also announced a RM500 million allocation for the Health Ministry to ramp up its resources. Mr Muhyiddin, in a televised address on Wednesday, has promised to unveil a “more comprehensive, people-oriented” economic stimulus package on Friday. He pledged that no one will be left behind. “Whether you are a taxi driver, Grab driver, farmer, restaurant owner, nasi lemak seller, banana fritters seller … the government will try its best to ensure that you will all benefit,” Mr Muhyiddin said.

https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/countries-are-starting-to-hoard-food-amid-coronavirus-fears-threatening-global (BLOOMBERG) - It's not just grocery shoppers who are hoarding pantry staples. Some governments are moving to secure domestic food supplies during the coronavirus pandemic. Kazakhstan, one of the world's biggest shippers of wheat flour, banned exports of that product along with others, including carrots, sugar and potatoes. Serbia has stopped the flow of its sunflower oil and other goods. Russia is leaving the door open to shipment bans and said it's assessing the situation weekly. To be perfectly clear, there have been just a handful of moves and no sure signs that much more is on the horizon. Still, what's been happening has raised a question: Is this the start of a wave of food nationalism that will further disrupt supply chains and trade flows? "We're starting to see this happening already - and all we can see is that the lockdown is going to get worse," said Tim Benton, research director in emerging risks at think tank Chatham House in London. Though food supplies are ample, logistical hurdles are making it harder to get products where they need to be as the coronavirus unleashes unprecedented measures, panic buying and the threat of labour crunches. Consumers across the globe are still loading their pantries - and the economic fallout from the virus is just starting. The spectre of more trade restrictions is stirring memories of how protectionism can often end up causing more harm than good. That adage rings especially true now as the moves would be driven by anxiety and not made in response to crop failures or other supply problems. As it is, many governments have employed extreme measures, setting curfews and limits on crowds or even on people venturing out for anything but to acquire essentials. That could spill over to food policy, said Ann Berg, an independent consultant and veteran agricultural trader who started her career at Louis Dreyfus Co. in 1974. "You could see wartime rationing, price controls and domestic stockpiling," she said. Some nations are adding to their strategic reserves. China, the biggest rice grower and consumer, pledged to buy more than ever before from its domestic harvest, even though the government already holds massive stockpiles of rice and wheat, enough for one year of consumption. Key wheat importers including Algeria and Turkey have also issued new tenders, and Morocco said a suspension on wheat-import duties would last through mid-June. As governments take nationalistic approaches, they risk disrupting an international system that has become increasingly interconnected in recent decades. Kazakhstan had already stopped exports of other food staples, like buckwheat and onions, before the move this week to cut off wheat-flour shipments. That latest action was a much bigger step, with the potential to affect companies around the world that rely on the supplies to make bread. For some commodities, a handful of countries, or even fewer, make up the bulk of exportable supplies. Disruptions to those shipments would have major global ramifications. Take, for example, Russia, which has emerged as the world's top wheat exporter and a key supplier to North Africa. "If governments are not working collectively and cooperatively to ensure there is a global supply, if they're just putting their nations first, you can end up in a situation where things get worse," said Benton of Chatham House. He warned that frenzied shopping coupled with protectionist policies could eventually lead to higher food prices - a cycle that could end up perpetuating itself. "If you're panic buying on the market for next year's harvest, then prices will go up, and as prices go up, policy makers will panic more," he said. And higher grocery bills can have major ramifications. Bread costs have a long history of kick-starting unrest and political instability. During the food price spikes of 2011 and 2008, there were food riots in more than 30 nations across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. "Without the food supply, societies just totally break," Benton said. Unlike previous periods of rampant food inflation, global inventories of staple crops like corn, wheat, soybeans and rice are plentiful, said Dan Kowalski, vice president of research at CoBank, a US$145 billion lender to the agriculture industry, adding he doesn't expect "dramatic" gains for prices now. While the spikes of the last decade were initially caused by climate problems for crops, policies exacerbated the consequences. In 2010, Russia experienced a record heat wave that damaged the wheat crop. The government responded by banning exports to make sure domestic consumers had enough. The United Nations' measure of global food prices reached a record high by February 2011. "Given the problem that we are facing now, it's not the moment to put these types of policies into place," said Maximo Torero, chief economist at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. "On the contrary, it's the moment to cooperate and coordinate." Of course, the few bans in place may not last, and signs of a return to normal could prevent countries from taking drastic measures. Once consumers start to see more products on shelves, they may stop hoarding, in turn allowing governments to back off. X5 Retail, Russia's biggest grocer, said demand for staple foods is starting to stabilise. In the US, major stores like Walmart Inc. have cut store hours to allow workers to restock. In the meantime, some food prices have already started going up because of the spike in buying. Wheat futures in Chicago, the global benchmark, have climbed more than 6 per cent in March as consumers buy up flour. US wholesale beef has shot up to the highest since 2015, and egg prices are higher. At the same time, the US dollar is surging against a host of emerging-market currencies. That reduces purchasing power for countries that ship in commodities, which are usually priced in greenbacks. In the end, whenever there's a disruption for whatever reason, Berg said, "it's the least-developed countries with weak currencies that get hurt the most."

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/indonesia-covid-19-muslim-pilgrims-gathering-12552630 Thousands of Muslim pilgrims brave COVID-19 to gather in Indonesia JAKARTA: Thousands of Muslim pilgrims from across Asia gathered in Indonesia on Wednesday (Mar 18), despite fears that their meeting could fuel the spread of a coronavirus, just two weeks after a similar event in Malaysia caused more than 500 infections. Organisers and regional officials said the event in the world's fourth most populous nation had begun, although the regional police chief said he was making a last ditch-effort to persuade organisers to call it off. "We are more afraid of God," one of the organisers, Mustari Bahranuddin, told Reuters, when asked about the risk of participants spreading the virus at the event in Gowa in Indonesia's province of South Sulawesi. "Because everyone's human, we fear illnesses, death," he said. "But there's something more to the body, which is our soul." Organisers had rejected a formal request from authorities to postpone the gathering, said a regional official, Arifuddin Saeni. He estimated that 8,695 people had already assembled in Gowa, near the provincial city of Makassar, adding that the numbers would make it hard to put a halt to the proceedings. "They are still coming," he said. "There are people from Thailand, Arabia, India and the Philippines." The Malaysian event, held from Feb 27 to Mar 1, drew 16,000 followers. Both gatherings in Indonesia and Malaysia were organised by members of Tablighi Jama'at, a global movement of evangelical Muslims that promotes proselytising, known as dakwah. HUNDREDS INFECTED IN MALAYSIA About two-thirds of Malaysia’s 790 infections have been traced to the meeting at a mosque complex on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, the capital. Tiny neighbour Brunei has confirmed 50 infections linked to it, while Cambodia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam have also said citizens were infected there. Organisers in Indonesia were checking pilgrims' temperatures as a precaution, Bahranuddin added. Saeni said health officials had visited the site and asked to monitor participants. By Wednesday, Indonesia's tally of infections stood at 227, with 19 deaths. The nation of 260 million had run just 1,255 tests by Tuesday. By contrast, South Korea, with a population of a fifth that size, is doing more than 15,000 tests a day. The Indonesian and Malaysian meetings had been organised by different groups, Bahranuddin said. Even so, he added, "Our purpose is one, even if the name changes, which is how we take religion to other people." The same social media accounts were used to promote both events. One Facebook account displayed a photograph of a prominent Indian Tablighi cleric, Sheikh Maulana Ibrahim Dewla, leaving Kuala Lumpur airport on Tuesday for the Indonesia event. Images on the account, Aalmi Tablighi Shura Elders, showed men setting up huge tents at the Indonesia site, and described them as having arrived early from Gulf nations to offer help. Promotional material for the Indonesian gathering reviewed by Reuters read, "The pleasure of living in this world is only a little, compared to the afterlife."

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/covid19-trace-together-mobile-app-contact-tracing-coronavirus-12560616 Singapore launches TraceTogether mobile app to boost COVID-19 contact tracing efforts SINGAPORE: A new mobile application called TraceTogether was launched on Friday (Mar 20) to support ongoing contact tracing efforts amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Singapore. By downloading the app and consenting to participate in it, TraceTogether allows users to "proactively help" in the contact tracing process, according to a joint press release. The TraceTogether app, which was developed by the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) in collaboration with MOH over the past eight weeks, can be downloaded by anyone with a Singapore mobile number and a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone. Users can scan the QR code to download the TraceTogether app on their phone. After giving consent during the set-up of the app, users will need to turn on their Bluetooth, as well as enable push notifications and location permissions. The app works by exchanging short-distance Bluetooth signals between phones to detect other users of the app who are in close proximity. Current MOH guidelines define close proximity as two metres apart, or up to five metres, for 30 minutes. READ: All events, gatherings with 250 participants or more must be suspended to further reduce COVID-19 spread READ: Plans in place to increase Singapore's capacity for COVID-19 patients if needed: Gan Kim Yong Records of these encounters will be stored locally in the users’ phones and will not be sent to the authorities. Users will only be asked to share these records when contacted by MOH as part of contact tracing investigations. If they refuse, they may be prosecuted under the Infectious Diseases Act. SINGAPORE: A new mobile application called TraceTogether was launched on Friday (Mar 20) to support ongoing contact tracing efforts amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Singapore. By downloading the app and consenting to participate in it, TraceTogether allows users to "proactively help" in the contact tracing process, according to a joint press release. The TraceTogether app, which was developed by the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) in collaboration with MOH over the past eight weeks, can be downloaded by anyone with a Singapore mobile number and a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone. Users can scan the QR code to download the TraceTogether app on their phone. After giving consent during the set-up of the app, users will need to turn on their Bluetooth, as well as enable push notifications and location permissions. The app works by exchanging short-distance Bluetooth signals between phones to detect other users of the app who are in close proximity. Current MOH guidelines define close proximity as two metres apart, or up to five metres, for 30 minutes. READ: All events, gatherings with 250 participants or more must be suspended to further reduce COVID-19 spread READ: Plans in place to increase Singapore's capacity for COVID-19 patients if needed: Gan Kim Yong Records of these encounters will be stored locally in the users’ phones and will not be sent to the authorities. Users will only be asked to share these records when contacted by MOH as part of contact tracing investigations. If they refuse, they may be prosecuted under the Infectious Diseases Act. Currently, contact tracing relies on the memory of interviewees. However, there have been instances when interviewees could not remember all their contacts or did not have information about people they had been in contact with. The new app will not replace ongoing contact tracing efforts, but it will facilitate the process, enabling contact tracers to inform users who are close contacts of COVID-19 cases "more quickly". READ: 40 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore, including 30 imported infections Explore our interactive: All the COVID-19 cases in Singapore and the clusters and links between them Dr Janil Puthucheary, Minister-in-charge of GovTech, said: "The process of contact tracing starts with a recall … and that is the only thing that this app intervenes with. It means that poor memory will no longer slow down the process of contact tracing.” "In contact tracing process, time matters,” he added, noting that contact tracing remains a key part of the country’s strategy to limit local transmission of COVID-19 and this app will augment the speed at which that occurs. “The faster the contact tracing process can be initiated and can identify the people at risk, the faster we can intervene and impose quarantine if necessary and limit spread locally," he told reporters at a press conference on Friday. For a start, authorities hope to use the app to establish 25 per cent to 50 per cent of these close contacts. “This enables users to take the necessary action sooner, such as monitoring his own health closely for signs of flu-like symptoms. Early detection could potentially help reduce the risk of the spread of the virus, and better protect our families and loved ones,” the release added. The Smart Nation and Digital Government Group will be working with the public and private sectors to raise awareness of the app and encourage its adoption. Speaking at the same press conference, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said: "This app is very important and we encourage Singaporeans to download it and help us with contact tracing. "If we are able to be even more effective in contact tracing, then we can be more effective in reducing the risk of local transmission." Explore: Real-time interactive map of all the confirmed cases reported around the world PRIVACY SAFEGUARDS The authorities stressed that the use of the app is voluntary and that users have to give "explicit consent" to participate in TraceTogether. This consent can be withdrawn anytime, according to GovTech. The app also has several layers of security and privacy safeguards in place. For example, users will submit only their mobile numbers after downloading the app. Each phone will then be assigned a user ID. This user ID is then used to generate temporary IDs at regular intervals. It is this temporary ID that is exchanged between the phones of TraceTogether users. Such regular generation of temporary IDs protect users from eavesdropping and tracking overtime by malicious actors, according to GovTech. READ: Singaporeans advised to defer all travel abroad amid heightened risk of imported COVID-19 cases READ: Companies urged to impose leave of absence for staff who travelled during March holidays - MOM READ: MFA urges Singaporean students overseas to consider returning home soon amid evolving COVID-19 situation No other personal detail, such as names, will be collected. Neither does the app access a user’s phone contact list or address book. The app also does not collect or use location data of any kind, such as GPS. "The app doesn't identify 'where' the exposure to COVID-19 cases may have occurred. It only seeks to establish 'who' else might have been exposed to the virus," according to the TraceTogether website. This means that location information can only be established by contact tracers during verbal interviews, it added. All TraceTogether logs will be stored locally on the users’ phone in an encrypted form. READ: Activities for seniors suspended for another 14 days as part of stricter safe distancing measures READ: Recommendations on safe distancing measures rolled out for retail, F&B sectors to prevent COVID-19 spread “The logs do not contain the user’s phone numbers but a set of cryptographically generated temporary IDs,” the joint press release said. “The logs leave his or her phone only when he or she uses the app to send the information to authorities to facilitate contact tracing,” it added. Even then, the authorities, including MOH and GovTech, have no knowledge of the user’s data as these logs are only deciphered and analysed after the user sends the information. Other safeguards include how the app will only be active during diseasee outbreaks. For instance after contact tracing ceases, the app will prompt users to deactivate its functionality.

Coronavirus Australia: Queensland researchers find ‘cure’, want drug trial A team of Australian researchers say they’ve found a cure for the novel coronavirus and hope to have patients enrolled in a nationwide trial by the end of the month. University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research director Professor David Paterson told news.com.au today they have seen two drugs used to treat other conditions wipe out the virus in test tubes. He said one of the medications, given to some of the first people to test positive for COVID-19 in Australia, had already resulted in “disappearance of the virus” and complete recovery from the infection. Prof Paterson, who is also an infectious disease physician at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, said it wasn’t a stretch to label the drugs “a treatment or a cure”. “It’s a potentially effective treatment,” he said. “Patients would end up with no viable coronavirus in their system at all after the end of therapy.” The drugs are both already registered and available in Australia. “What we want to do at the moment is a large clinical trial across Australia, looking at 50 hospitals, and what we’re going to compare is one drug, versus another drug, versus the combination of the two drugs,” Prof Paterson said. Given their history, researchers have a “long experience of them being very well tolerated” and there are no unexpected side effects. “We’re not on a flat foot, we can sort of move ahead very rapidly with enrolling Australians in this trial,” Prof Paterson said. “It’s the question we all have – we know it’s coming now, what is the best way to treat it?” Prof Paterson said positive experiences in the fight against coronavirus have already been recorded overseas, citing China and Singapore. His research team are confident they can start getting the drugs to patients in a very safe way on home soil. “We want to give Australians the absolute best treatment rather than just someone’s guesses or someone’s anecdotal experiences from a few people,” Prof Paterson told news.com.au. He said they hope to be enrolling patients by the end of March. “And that way, if we can test it in this first wave of patients, we do fully expect that there are going to be ongoing infections for months and months ahead, and therefore we’ll have the best possible information to treat subsequent patients,” Prof Paterson said. “That’s really our aim, to get real world experience in Australia.” He said the trouble with the data coming from China was that it wasn’t really gathered “in a very controlled way”, given they were the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak at the time. “Things were just chaotic,” Prof Paterson said. “There were these emergency hospitals being built and the system really being very, very stretched.” One of the two medications is a HIV drug, which has been superseded by “newer generation” HIV drugs, and the other is an anti-malaria drug called chloroquine which is rarely used and “kept on the shelf now” due to resistance to malaria. He said the researchers want to study them in a “very meaningful way” against the coronavirus to “try and alleviate that anxiety of Australians”. “There have already been patients treated with these in Australia and there’s been successful outcomes but it hasn’t been done in a controlled or a comparative way,” Prof Paterson said. The drugs would be given orally, as tablets. Prof Paterson said patients would be asked to participate “as soon as they’re admitted” to hospital with the aim of beginning treatment “very early on in their illness”. He said the research was sparked by Chinese patients, who were first given the drug in Australia, showing their doctors information on the internet about the treatment used overseas. “Our doctors were very, very surprised that a HIV drug could actually work against the novel coronavirus and there was a bit of scepticism,” he said. “That first wave of Chinese patients we had (in Australia), they all did very, very well when they were treated with the HIV drug. “That’s reassuring … that we’re onto something really good here.” The RBWH Foundation has established a Coronavirus Action Fund. By Monday afternoon it had raised $30,000 of the desired $750,000 for the clinical drug trials and other related medical research. “The trials will start as soon as funding is secured,” the fund states. When asked why they had to put a call out money, Prof Paterson said they “want to give as many people in Australia access to this” and can’t take doctors away from their normal work. “The reality is that doctors are going to need to be concentrating on their patients and we need to get a very strong research team across Australia that can make sure that all the Is are dotted and the Ts are crossed and make sure that it is a really high-quality study so that we can be really confident in the results,” he said. “We did this with bushfires, this is an example where we’re reaching out to the public to put the financial support behind the study so it can get underway. “Fifty hospitals have expressed interest in participating and we expect there may even be more to come.” Source

Coronavirus Italy: Man recovers from COVID-19 using drug designed for ebola There are hopes that an experimental drug initially designed to treat ebola could cure patients of coronavirus, after a 79-year-old Italian man who had tested positive to COVID-19 was given the all-clear following treatment. The man was cleared on Tuesday, the President of Italy’s Liguria region Giovanni Toti said, after taking the drug remdesivir. Mr Toti described it as the “first real case of coronavirus cured”, according to The Telegraph. Remdesivir, a broad-spectrum antiviral developed by US drug firm Gilead was originally designed to treat ebola in a Scottish nurse when she suffered a relapse 18 months after being cleared of the disease, contracted while volunteering in Sierra Leone. A drug initially designed to treat ebola could be successful in curing the coronavirus. Picture: Jessica Hill/APSource:AP Now, the drug is being tested in five coronavirus clinical trials – including by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) on 13 patients who were hospitalised after contracting coronavirus on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. While it’s far from a confirmed cure, it raises hope that drugs can eventually be used to treat the coronavirus – which has now infected close to a quarter of a million people around the world. The virus outbreak in Italy has now become the world’s deadliest, killing more than 3400 people. Redemsivir also showed success in the treatment of monkeys infected with MERs, a different type of coronavirus. Around the globe, medical experts are racing to find a cure for COVID-19. In the US, clinical trials on a vaccine have begun, with President Donald Trump announcing on Friday that two drugs could be a “game changer” in treating coronavirus and will be made available “almost immediately” by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). During a briefing with the coronavirus taskforce at the White House, the US President said the antimalarial drugs – hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine – would soon be available for “prescribed use”. “It’s been around for a long time, so we know if things don’t go as planned, it’s not going to kill anybody,” he said, adding that the early results had been “encouraging”. “We have to remove every barrier or a lot of barriers that were unnecessary and they’ve done that to get the rapid deployment of safe, effective treatments and we think we have some good answers. “This could be a tremendous breakthrough.” FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn told reporters he had “great hope for how we are going to come out of this situation”. “What’s important is not to provide falsehood, but provide hope,” he said. Closer to home, in Queensland researchers believe they’re close – if not already there – to finding a cure, and are now chasing funding to begin clinical trials. University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research director Professor David Paterson told news.com.au they have seen two drugs used to treat other conditions wipe out the virus in test tubes. He said one of the medications, given to some of the first people to test positive for COVID-19 in Australia, had already resulted in “disappearance of the virus” and complete recovery from the infection. Prof Paterson, who is also an infectious disease physician at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, said it wasn’t a stretch to label the drugs “a treatment or a cure”. “It’s a potentially effective treatment,” he said. “Patients would end up with no viable coronavirus in their system at all after the end of therapy.” Source

https://mothership.sg/2020/03/creative-eateries-lockdown-fire-malaysia-staff/ S’pore restaurant group threatens to fire M’sia staff if they do not find accommodation by Apr. 2020 [Update on Mar. 20, 10:44am: In response to the incident, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has released a statement on the working arrangements of Malaysians in Singapore. Employers have several options to consider, including work-from-home, no-pay leave, and finding accommodations for their workers. You can read the statement here: On Mar. 16, Malaysia announced a lockdown on its borders that would take place two days later. The measure, meant to contain the Covid-19 outbreak, will last until Mar. 31, 2020. Malaysians are not allowed to leave the country during this period. This means that workers who cross borders on a daily basis might find themselves stranded in terms of accommodation. Ultimatum In a letter issued on Mar. 16, Creative Eateries gave its Malaysia-based employees an ultimatum: Either secure accommodation in Singapore by Mar. 31, 2020, or face the possibility of losing their jobs. Creative Eateries owns an extensive portfolio of restaurants in Singapore, including Bangkok Jam, Suki-Ya, and Hot Stones, as well as catering services. The company required its Malaysia-based employees to secure accommodation in Singapore “at least till the end of the year” and cease their daily commute across the border. These employees were also required to show proof of their newly-made living arrangements. Creative Eateries said that should employees be unable to report for work due to border control, the company has the right to cease their employment immediately and cancel their work permit. Any related absence at work will also be considered unpaid leave. Furthermore, the employees in question should inform the human resource department of their decision by Mar. 20, or the company will “find [their] replacement immediately”. Here is the letter, sent by a Mothership reader: Not a reaction to the Malaysia lockdown: Creative Eateries In response to queries from Mothership, Creative Eateries did not deny issuing the letter, but instead said that it was prepared before the announcement of the lockdown. The company emphasised that it was “by no means” sent as a reaction to the lockdown. Furthermore, the spokesperson added, the company has always “engaged and consulted” regularly with their employees prior to implementing any policies. In this instance, Malaysian staff have been consulted since early February. These staff have also “successfully transitioned” to Singapore and are unaffected by the sudden lockdown, the spokesperson revealed. She also said that although Creative Eateries has been impacted by Covid-19, the company has not made the decision to retrench any employee since the outbreak. You can read the full statement here:

World Feared China Over Coronavirus. Now the Tables Are Turned. Asian countries that suffered through the pandemic first are working to guard against a new wave of contagion from the West. The fear and suspicion directed at China in the devastating early days of the coronavirus outbreak have made a 180-degree turn: It is the West that now frightens Asia and the rest of the world. With Italy, Spain and the United States surging in contagion, many countries in Asia that suffered through the pandemic first seem to have wrestled it into submission, particularly China — and are now fighting to protect against a new wave of infection from outside. Across Asia, travelers from Europe and the United States are being barred or forced into quarantine. Gyms, private clinics and restaurants in Hong Kong warn them to stay away. Even Chinese parents who proudly sent their children to study in New York or London are now mailing them masks and sanitizer or rushing them home on flights that can cost $25,000. “We came back because we think going back to China is safer than staying in New York,” said Farrah Lyu, a 24-year-old recent college graduate who flew home to eastern China with her roommate this month. The reversal of fortune would have been unimaginable a week ago. At the time, China was the outbreak’s global epicenter, with people dying by the hundreds each day. But on Thursday, it reported no new local cases for the first time since the outbreak began. Its uncompromising response — locking down cities, shutting factories, testing thousands — seems to have brought China’s contagion under control. Now the pandemic that originated in China is migrating and starting to recirculate. Across Asia, where Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea successfully grappled with the virus early, alongside China, there is a growing sense of fear and dismay. Much of the region looks west and asks: We’re getting it right — why can’t you? For President Trump, the answer has been deflection. Facing a torrent of criticism for playing down the epidemic in its crucial early stages, he has been trying to push blame back to China, worsening existing tensions between the two superpowers. Despite warnings that he is encouraging xenophobia, Mr. Trump has repeatedly used the term “China virus” in what critics see as an effort to distance himself from the problem. Beijing has retaliated by falsely suggesting that the virus started with American troops, while portraying itself as a heroic warrior against the contagion and a model for the world. Especially in China and the Chinese diaspora, there is a growing demand for recognition of the hard work and sacrifices that tamed the outbreak, and a desire to tell the world what has gone right and wrong, and why. “People in Western countries said China’s response was too authoritarian, didn’t respect people’s democracy and freedom enough,” said Yin Choi Lam, a Vietnamese-Chinese restaurant owner in Melbourne, Australia. “Now compare it to places like Italy, where the death rate is so high, or America, where no one knows how many people are sick. Would you rather have freedom or keep your life?” Similar arguments are flooding Chinese social media. One popular comic shows China sick as the world watches behind a glass barrier, followed by a panel with an angry, healthy China behind the glass as other countries play and tussle without masks like unruly children. Some of the heaviest scorn, however, has been saved for those who return to China and question the country’s harsh approach. A video that went viral this week showed a Chinese-Australian woman being confronted by the police in Beijing after she evaded quarantine in order to exercise. Users of the microblogging platform Weibo called for her to be sent back to Australia. Critics both inside and outside China note that the country’s authoritarian response is not the only or the best way to fight an epidemic. Officials kept the virus secret for weeks, allowing it to spread uncontrolled in central China, then forced people to remain in overwhelmed cities. By contrast, South Korea, a vibrant capitalist democracy, along with Taiwan and Singapore, has managed the virus with transparency, efficiency and solidarity, while preserving freedom of movement. Part of what has set some Asian countries apart is experience, said Leighanne Yuh, a historian at Korea University. “From the outset of the epidemic, South Koreans took the situation very seriously, perhaps because of their previous experiences with SARS and MERS,” she said. “Wearing masks, washing our hands, social distancing — these were all familiar actions.” In the United States and Europe, there was more hesitation. And now they are hubs of infection sending disease across the globe. In Australia, the United States is now the leading source of coronavirus cases, followed by Italy, then China. Infections in China are also coming from outside. Officials said on Thursday that 34 new cases had been confirmed among people who had arrived from elsewhere. Many people in China now want their government to completely block access from the United States and other hot spots in the same way other countries suspended arrivals from China. “I hope China can tighten its national borders and significantly reduce the number of people entering the country,” said Tang Xiaozhao, a plastic surgery manager in Shanghai. “Governments and people of most countries disappoint me,” she added. Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese territory, has often acted as a bridge between China and the West, the shifting sense of angst can be seen in warnings from businesses where people gather. One online warning, posted by a pub called Hemingway’s DB, tells expats that they will be reported to the police if they violate a new official requirement for 14 days of self-isolation upon returning from overseas. And a large fitness chain emailed customers to tell anyone who has returned from abroad since March 10, or lives with someone who did: “Kindly do not visit.” For those with family members in the United States or Europe, there is also a frantic rush to help. On Wednesday at Hong Kong’s main post office, people lined up to send boxes of masks and alcohol wipes. “During SARS, my mother drove from Canada to the United States to buy masks, so I had to send some back to her,” said Eric Chan, 45, a financier. He was down to his last box in Hong Kong, but had gone from pharmacy to pharmacy until he snagged a few boxes for his mother and siblings at inflated prices. His own face was covered — most people in Hong Kong are still wearing masks. The city, with a population of seven million, has avoided total shutdowns, even as the virus peaked in mainland China. But this week Hong Kong moved to tighten its borders as it recorded a significant uptick in infections, most of them imported. The authorities are investigating five cases linked to Lan Kwai Fong, a nightlife area that is thronged with expatriates on weekends. Many of those who recently returned to China might have predicted just such a cluster. They see in the United States and Europe a greater urge to go it alone — and studies have found that Americans and Europeans tend to focus on the individual rather than what’s interconnected. Ms. Lyu, 24, and her roommate in New York, Tianran Qian, 23 — who flew back to their homes in Hangzhou, in eastern China — said they found the American response disorienting. They had both been reading about outbreak clusters around the world for weeks, and for a time they stayed inside and wore masks as they would have at home. But their American friends continued to socialize, describing the virus as little more than the flu. “On your phone, you see what’s happening around the world, in Japan and Korea, and when you go into real life, people act as if it’s a normal day,” Ms. Lyu said, describing what it was like in New York before she left. “They either don’t get it or they just ignore it,” Ms. Qian said. “People were so indifferent.” At home in China, they said, they felt safer. They self-quarantined in their rooms, with their parents leaving food and novels at their bedroom doors. Their groceries were delivered and even their trash was collected and treated by hospital employees in hazmat suits. “Everything was planned,” Ms. Lyu said. “We don’t have to worry about everything.” Source

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/03/18/johor-govt-hopes-to-reopen-border-with-s039pore Johor govt hopes to reopen border with S'pore KOTA ISKANDAR: The Johor state government says it hopes to reopen the border with Singapore within the next few days. Mentri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad said this would be done with more stringent health checks on both sides of the border. “We are coming up with a mitigation plan during this Covid-19 outbreak. “Among the categories exempted are those with work passes by Malaysia or Singapore, students studying in Singapore, those with specialised skills, businessmen, those involved in logistics and others that would be announced soon, ” he added. Hasni said this during a press conference after the state executive councillors meeting held at Kota Iskandar here on Wednesday (March 18). He said a special committee headed by him, the state secretary and state security council would discuss the matter today, and that would have a discussion with their Singaporean counterparts the day after before they forwarded the matter to the Federal Government for announcement. Beginning Wednesday, the border between Malaysia and Singapore has been locked down, except for lorries and people with special permission.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/covid19-companies-scramble-house-malaysians-travel-restrictions-12548642 Singapore firms rush to house Malaysian workers before COVID-19 travel restrictions kick in SINGAPORE: Companies are rushing to secure accommodation for Malaysian workers who commute daily to Singapore before Malaysia's two-week-long travel restrictions kick in on Wednesday (Mar 18). Malaysia's Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced on Monday that the government will implement a movement control order from Mar 18 to Mar 31 in a bid to contain the spread of COVID-19. Under the order, all Malaysians are barred from travelling abroad, including around 300,000 Malaysians who travel across the Woodlands Causeway and Tuas Second Link every day for work. Malaysian returning from overseas will need to undergo a health inspection and be placed under a 14-day self-quarantine. Foreigners are also barred from entering Malaysia during this period. Singapore transport engineering firm Wong Fong Engineering said that 34 of its 290 employees who work at their Tuas and Joo Koon facilities will be affected by the restrictions, impacting several functions across finance, engineering and manufacturing. Supply chain disruptions and delayed deliveries that began when the coronavirus first emerged earlier this year will be further impacted, said the firm's chief financial officer Jack Wong. The company said 12 of its workers are staying with colleagues, while beds have been secured at Tuas View Dormitory for an additional 12. The rest said they would make their own lodging arrangements, the company told CNA. At TranZplus Engineering, chief executive Nelson Lim and his senior management team met three Malaysian employees to decide on the steps to be taken ahead of the midnight deadline. Due to family obligations, two of the employees - administrative staff in the sales department - will return to Johor and remain there. Their work will be taken on by their teammates in the human resource department. Mr Lim said he plans to pay them half of their salary during this time so that they will still have some cash flowing in. He called one dormitory to enquire about housing the third employee, a customer service officer. He decided to put her up in his home instead after the dormitory said it could only offer a room housing six workers for S$2,200 a month with a minimum lease of three months. National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) secretary-general Ng Chee Meng told reporters on Tuesday that about 1,300 affected Malaysian employees of supermarket chain NTUC Fairprice would be given free accommodation and some allowance to help with daily necessities. For Malaysian workers who are unable to stay in Singapore, Mr Ng called on their companies to be understanding of their circumstances, for example by allowing them to take their annual leave during this time. Dormitory operator Centurion Corporation said more than 700 Malaysian residents had made bookings to stay in its dormitories as of 3pm on Tuesday. More are expected, said chief executive Kong Chee Min. Centurion Corporation operates five dormitories with a total capacity of 28,000 beds. But Mr Kong said that there is little spare capacity as they are operating at close to full occupancy and have also had to set aside quarantine and Stay-Home Notice isolation facilities. The company is currently working with the authorities to temporarily re-purpose certain common spaces as living apartments to increase bed capacity during this period. This will give them more than 5,000 additional bed spaces, he said. About 300 will be set apart for female residents. As for cost, Mr Kong said that they will waive the usual long-term lease requirements and charge close to normal rates for short stays, “despite significant additional costs incurred in preparing, fitting out and managing these special bed provisions”. He declined to say how much they charge, but pointed out that the market rate for a two weeks' stay ranges from about S$210 to S$300, and S$400 to S$600 for a month. At the multi-ministerial task force press conference on Tuesday evening, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said the authorities have matched more than 10,000 workers to accommodation providers so far, adding that housing a worker at a dormitory should cost about S$35 a day. "For every affected worker, we will provide the firms with the support of S$50 a night for 14 nights," she said. The ministry has also released a list of hotels and dormitories companies can refer to for options. These include Fragrance Hotel Rose, the Ibis budget hotels and dormitories operated by Teambuild Engineering & Construction. A customer service officer from the Fragrance hotel chain told CNA that he had been “answering enquiries” throughout the day but declined to reveal more. Though not on the list, the Royal Plaza on Scotts hotel has received bookings for more than 80 rooms for the duration of two weeks, said general manager Patrick Fiat. Most of the companies are from the technology industry, he added. Two hundred rooms are still available and he expects more to be taken up before the end of the day. The hotel itself has 43 employees in departments such as housekeeping and the front office, who will be affected by the restrictions. Eighteen of the employees will be staying in Singapore during the lockdown and accommodation will be provided for them at the hotel, while the rest of the employees have chosen to stay with their families. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan wrote that there are ”a number" of Singapore's bus captains and technicians who are Malaysians and commute from Johor to work in Singapore. Public transport operators like SBS Transit and SMRT have secured sufficient hotel accommodation for those who are planning to continue working and staying in Singapore, he said. In a separate Facebook post, NTUC assistant secretary-general Melvin Yong said that more than 2,500 of these workers have found accommodation. They will also be given a daily allowance to defray some of the unexpected living expenses that they might incur, said Mr Yong, who is also the National Transport Workers' Union executive secretary. Fortunately, for water supplier Wanin Industries, none of its workers at their Singapore plant come in from Malaysia every day. But the company has other concerns right now. They are unsure if their seven Malaysian drivers who transport the cartons of water into Singapore from a factory in Johor will be able to come in, or whether as a food supplier, their operations in Malaysia will be allowed to continue given the lockdown, said its head of special projects, Eugene Tan. Wanin Industries, which supplies water products to supermarkets and airlines in Singapore, doubled its deliveries into Singapore today from 50,000 bottles to 100,000 bottles to ensure they have enough stock here, Mr Tan said. Singapore Manufacturing Federation’s (SMF) president Douglas Foo said that the group has been regularly sending updates to its members since the announcement of the lockdown, and contacting dormitories to help members find available accommodation. A SMF member is also consolidating a list based on inputs from other members of the critical raw materials needed for the next two weeks, he said. This list will be sent to officials from Malaysia’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

SINGAPORE — From Wednesday (4 March) 2359 hours, new visitors with recent travel history to South Korea, Iran and northern Italy within the last 14 days will not be allowed to enter or transit through Singapore, Lawrence Wong, co-chair of the multi-ministry taskforce on COVID-19, said on Tuesday amid the worsening coronavirus outbreak in the three countries. The announcement comes as these countries continue to grapple with a surge in confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in recent days. The three countries are just behind China in the tally of cases. As of Tuesday, South Korea reported over 5,000 COVID-19 cases, including 28 deaths. Daegu and Cheongdo - the worst hit areas - had earlier been designated as “special care zones” and the South Korean government has raised the nationwide health alert level to the highest level of “serious”. Meanwhile, the reported cases in Italy rose to over 2,000 as of Tuesday, including 52 deaths. The number of cases in Iran, as of Tuesday, reached more than 1,500 with 66 deaths. Residents in Singapore - Singaporeans and permanent residents - and long-term pass holders with recent travel history to the three countries in the last 14 days will be issued with a Stay-Home Notice (SHN). Those who are served with the SHN have to remain in their place of residence at all times for 14 days after returning to Singapore. MOH on Tuesday also advised Singaporeans to avoid non-essential travel to South Korea, Iran, northern Italy and Japan. As of Tuesday, Japan had more than 250 cases. Speaking to reporters at a media doorstop, Wong said, “We have not included Japan in the incoming restrictions because the number of infected cases in Japan at this stage is still lower compared to the other countries. So for Japan, we have place advisory we are managing the risk by having an advisory on outgoing trips at this juncture.” On 1 February at 2359, a ban on visitors with recent travel to China to enter or transit through Singapore took effect. The ban was expanded from an earlier curb for visitors with travel history to the Chinese province of Hubei within the last 14 days. Last Tuesday, a ban on visitors with recent travel to Daegu and Cheongdo came into effect.