Myanmar’s military caretaker government on Sunday appointed a retired deputy director of the Education Department in Arakan State as minister for ethnic affairs in Chin State.

Civil society organisations that are assisting with Covid-19 prevention activities in Arakan State’s Ramree Township are in desperate need of personal protective equipment (PPE), they said, including hazmat suits and other coronavirus preventive supplies. 

 Ethnic literature teachers working as daily-wage staff in Arakan State have not yet received their salaries for July, according to the teachers. 

Residents in Thandwe Township, Arakan State, have been receiving the Covid-19 vaccine since July 30, causing crowds that are themselves raising concerns about the potential spread of the virus, according to local social organisations. 

Basic food items such as rice, cooking oil and iodised salt are in short supply at the Kanhtaunggyi camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State’s Myebon Township, according to a camp official.  

About 100,000 people in Arakan State will be inoculated with the recently shipped Covid-19 vaccine donated by China, but there are no plans to vaccinate journalists with that supply, the Arakan State Administration Council said on July 31. 

Authorities in the Arakan State capital Sittwe put the kibosh on a local charity’s plans to distribute low-cost basic foodstuffs to those in need over the weekend, with the officials citing fears that the event would draw a crowd during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

With spillover creek water entering some wards in Thandwe, Arakan State, on Sunday morning, residents are concerned about the possibility of fresh flooding less than a week after the town was inundated. 

Fifty-eight out of 100 people tested for coronavirus in Arakan State returned positive results in a recent sampling, according to Dr. Soe Win Paing, assistant director of the state’s Department of Public Health (DPH).

Arakan State does not have enough oxygen and must rely on O₂ supplies from other parts of Myanmar to treat Covid-19 patients in the state, Arakan State Administration Council spokesman U Hla Thein told reporters on Saturday. 

The Arakan Army (AA) said it had detonated stun grenades in the Arakan State capital Sittwe this past week as a warning to those who are failing to follow the ethnic armed group’s Covid-19 stay-at-home orders. 

A total of 175 coronavirus patients died in Arakan State from May 12 to July 30, according to figures compiled by the Arakan State Department of Public Health. 

A pregnant woman infected with Covid-19 died after the delivery at Maungdaw District Hospital on Tuesday, but the newborn is in good health, according to the hospital’s medical superintendent, Dr. Nu Kathi San. 

Several houses in Arakan State’s Thandwe Township were damaged by flooding on July 27 and financial assistance is reportedly needed to rebuild those homes. 

Due to the closure of the border trade camp in Sittwe, Arakan State, workers involved in trading and their family members are struggling to make ends meet, according to the workers. 

There were 282 cases of dengue fever reported in Arakan State this year from January to July 26, according to a source from the state’s Department of Public Health (DPH).

A man from a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Nyaung Chaung village, Kyauktaw Township, was attacked by a bear while foraging for bamboo shoots in the nearby forest on Thursday. 

Drivers say the Minbu-Ann road, the busiest thoroughfare for transporting goods from mainland Myanmar to Arakan State, is congested every year during the rainy season.

U Hla Thein, a spokesman for the Arakan State Administration Council, said that despite the outbreak of a third wave of Covid-19, court proceedings would not be adjourned or postponed, and would instead continue as usual.