Travel by motorway, waterway and flight is not suspended in Arakan State but regulations on travellers have been tightened, the Arakan State Administration Council says, as Covid-19 infection rates continue to rise nationwide. 

The number of Covid-19 cases in Arakan State during the ongoing third wave of the pandemic neared 1,000 on Tuesday as health officials and civil society voiced concerns about lax adherence to preventive regulations among members of the public. 

Fifty-five of 98 hotels and guesthouses in Arakan State are now open in line with Covid-19 preventive regulations, according to the state’s Directorate of Hotels and Tourism. 

Thandwe District General Hospital in Arakan State is verging on a shortage of oxygen for emergency Covid-19 patients, according to a monk who is helping with virus-related affairs in Thandwe, as a push for donors to set up an oxygen generator for the hospital continues. 

Five youths arrested in connection with two bomb blasts in Paletwa, Chin State, on May 28 were taken back to the Paletwa Township police station from the Sittwe’s Myoma police station on July 11 without trial, according to family members. 

Fifteen out of 856 Covid-19 cases recorded in Arakan State as of July 12 are healthcare personnel from six different townships, according to Dr. Soe Win Paing, assistant director of the Arakan State Department of Public Health. 

All Ministry of Education employees have been instructed to work on a two-week-on, two-week-off rotational basis, with in-person staff levels reduced to 50% to prevent the spread of Covid-19, according to a July 12 directive from the Arakan State education office.

Eight of the Covid-19 patients in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, have been given supplemental oxygen and if the virus-infected population increases, local healthcare providers may find themselves facing a shortage of it, according to the township Department of Public Health (DPH). 

The deputy head of the Kyaukphyu District Police and the assistant director of the district’s Road Department succumbed to Covid-19 on Monday as the Arakan State death toll since the pandemic’s third wave began rose to 16. 

Commodity prices in Arakan State have risen by 30-70% amid the ongoing third wave of Covid-19, according to businesspeople and merchants.

A man on a highway bus traveling to Thandwe from Yangon died en route on Sunday and was later found to have been infected with Covid-19, with two fellow passengers subsequently also testing positive for the virus. 

The Sittwe Township Court on July 12 fined three Arakanese youths who were charged under Section 19 of the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law in connection with a protest they helped organise late last year against human rights abuses. 

A doctor was among four people who tested positive for Covid-19 on July 11 in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, according to the Maungdaw District Health Department. 

U Min Aung, a former Arakan State MP for the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Taungup Township, and a fellow party member will be arraigned on July 26 to decide whether to prosecute them under Section 25 of the Natural Disaster Management Law.

A new oxygen plant will come online by month’s end in Sittwe, Arakan State, according to U Tun Tun Oo, owner of the BMG drinking water factory involved in procuring the machine, as demand for oxygen rises alongside the state’s Covid-19 case count. 

Two locals from Kyauksin village in Arakan State’s Ann Township were reportedly injured in a landmine explosion on Saturday and one victim’s leg was amputated, while the other may have lost his eyesight.

Despite up to five people dead of Covid-19 in Maungdaw Township this month, locals are still lax in adhering to preventive regulations and guidelines intended to curb the disease’s spread, according to the medical superintendent of Maungdaw District People’s Hospital, Dr. Nu Kaythi San. 

Shops, restaurants and markets in Maungdaw town, where the death toll from Covid-19 has reached five, are only being allowed half-day hours of operation from July 11. 

Residents of Lay Taung town in Arakan State’s Ramree Township are demanding that a new doctor be assigned to the local hospital amid the ongoing third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the previous physician having been transferred elsewhere and no replacement yet arriving.