The latest from Asean pt. 2

Hello friends!

I should’ve thought of a different way to divvy up this week’s update since our Mekong briefs are much shorter than yesterday’s! 

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All coronavirus coverage will remain free, but please help me out by sharing and/or recommending to pals and/or hitting that heart up there.

Thanks so much and stay safe out there,Erin Cook

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Laos has shut it down. According to a Xinhua report run by the Straits Times, a lockdown preventing anyone from entering or leaving the country from Monday until at least April 19. Additionally, everyone must stay at home unless for essentials. As of Saturday, the country has eight confirmed cases. According to the report, the Foreign Ministry will work closely with foreigners who want to leave to ensure they can exit the country. We’ll be digging deeper into Laos in the coming days, so stay tuned. 

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The Cambodian Health Ministry reported an additional eight cases Monday, bringing the total to 107. In response to a casino worker contracting the virus, Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered the country’s casinos to close. “I would like to clarify to various gamblers that if you want to gamble, do it tonight. There is still tonight and tomorrow night,” he said.

I’m not so sure many people are travelling too much at the moment anyway, but just in case: Cambodia will not be issuing tourist visas for a month.

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As of Tuesday, Thailand reports an additional 127 cases and one death. This brings the total cases to 1,651 since January and 10 deaths. The island of Phuket has instated a lockdown with most travel banned for at least a month from Monday. Phuket Governor Pakkapong Taweepat says transport carrying essential goods will be exempt. 

When it comes to measuring the impact of the virus on tourism in the region, Phuket will be an important case. The Bank of Thailand previously said tourism accounts for 56 per cent of the island’s employment which has now taken a massive hit.  

Meanwhile, King Maha Vajiralongkorn is ‘self’-isolating in a resort in the German alpine town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. He is joined by 20 concubines and ‘numerous’ servants. The group has gotten around Germany’s regulations on shutting down industry because they’re “the guests are a single, homogenous group of people with no fluctuation.” Good win for the German tourism sector, no?

Coronavirus lockdown leaves migrant workers stranded in Thailand (Al Jazeera)

Last week, Ma Moe Moe and dozens of her coworkers were suddenly fired. The silk-garment factory, where they worked, shut down as most of its exports to China were halted as a result of economic slowdown brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.

Feeling disheartened, Ma Moe Moe told Al Jazeera that her former employer had little sympathy for their situation. And now, unable to go home and out of a job - she is stuck in limbo.

"Because of getting fired from the factory, I am worried about bills because there is only one income source from my husband," she told Al Jazeera.

"Now that I have no job I feel depressed," she said, explaining that her husband's pay has also dropped because he can no longer work night shifts as a result of the Bangkok's shutdown.

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Myanmar has reported its first death. A 69-year-old man who had been fighting cancer died of the virus this morning. The tally of cases sits at 14, but there are fears we will see an outbreak shortly with migrant workers returning from Thailand. Commercial flights have been temporarily suspended, Xinhua reports, hoping to stem that tide.

The Virus Is Coming to Myanmar, but the Pain Has Already Begun (NYT)

“We fear that the virus comes with the imports from China,” said Ma Hnin Thazin, a representative of the Industrial Workers Federation of Myanmar. “But we also fear that so many people are losing their jobs.”

Even before the coronavirus hit, factories in Hlaing Tharyar had been roiled by a series of strikes, as workers clamored for basic rights. For example, they wanted free bandages for injuries from sewing machines, which they said occurred daily.

At a duffel-bag factory down the street from where Mr. Naing Lin worked, 196 workers staged walkouts over a 13-day period in February because the foul-tasting drinking water was making them sick.

“It is very hot when we work,” said one of them, Ma Thandar Myint. “The water was yellow, and I had to pinch my nose when I drank it.”

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A 10-year-old boy who has returned home to Vietnam from Turkey has become the country’s 204th reported case. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has agreed with the Health Ministry that a health emergency declaration is needed and issued a shelter in place directive for a fortnight. “From midnight April 1, everybody is required to stay at home and can only go out to buy food or in emergency cases and must keep at least two meters from others,” he said in a statement, as reported by Reuters. Mike Tatarski goes deeper into some of these cases in his Vietnam Weekly.