New Covid cases fall in Asean but deaths cross 2,000
Southeast Asia reported a sharp decline in new Covid-19 cases, but deaths hit record numbers on Monday, collated data showed.
Asean saw 73,124 new cases on Monday, lower than Sunday’s 84,518, but deaths climbed to 2,003, increasing from the previous day’s 1,755.
The number of Covid-19 cases in the region since the outbreak crossed 6.19 million, with 119,063 deaths.
Indonesia's ministry of finance announced an increase in the public health budget by 744.75 trillion rupiah (THB1.67 trillion) to fight the outbreak. About one-third of this budget will be used to build permanent and field hospitals, while the rest will be used for vaccine procurement, hiring of doctors and nurses and supporting the operations of existing medical professionals countrywide related to Covid-19.
Indonesia has seen a sharp fall in cases from over 50,000 last week to 34,257 on Monday.
Malaysia reported 10,972 new cases and 129 deaths on Monday, bringing cumulative cases in the country to 927,533 with 7,148 deaths.
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin set the target of vaccinating all senior citizens in the country within October by giving 500,000 jabs per day to stop the spread of Covid-19. The country has ordered over 76 million doses of vaccine, 70 per cent of which are Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine.