The Township Development Committee in Maungdaw, Arakan State, issued a letter on July 2 instructing restaurant and tea shop owners to limit service to takeaway orders only to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

With no place to properly dispose of waste in Kanhtaukgyi town, Myebon Township, residents are dumping their garbage along Kanhtaukgyi Creek, according to locals.

A nighttime curfew has been extended for another two months, from July 2, in Arakan State’s Ann Township. 

Although a standard hearing for four Arakanese students charged under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code and Section 29 of the Natural Disaster Management Law was not held due to Covid-19 concerns, a final prosecution witness has testified regarding the latter charge. 

An additional 20 cases of Covid-19 were reported in Maungdaw Township on July 3, with one infected individual dying due to underlying illness, according to Maungdaw District General Hospital. 

A village-tract administrator was stabbed to death by a group of people in Arakan State’s Thandwe Township at about 10 p.m. on July 2, according to his family members.

As the number of COVID-19 infections in Arakan State reached 348 on Thursday evening, a massive cluster of cases involving Border Guard Force (BGF) personnel and their families in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships was blamed for a significant share of the growing caseload.  

Only 16 tonnes of overall weight will be allowed for trucks in Arakan State during the monsoon season, according to the Thandwe District Roads and Bridges Department, which cited concerns about the structural integrity of roads and bridges in the state that require repairs.

Scores of houses in Lekka village, Mrauk-U Township, and Hpar Pyo village in Minbya Township, which were reduced to ashes in clashes between the Myanmar military (Tatmadaw) and Arakan Army (AA), have been rebuilt with the help of the Arakan State military council. 

Trade at the Kanyin Chaung economic zone in Maungdaw town, Arakan State, is being hampered by damaged roads in the area, according to traders. 

Two schools and two classrooms in Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township have been temporarily closed from July 1 after four teachers were found to be infected with Covid-19, according to the Maungdaw Township education officer. 

The Sittwe Township Court held another hearing in the case of former Arakan State Chief Minister U Nyi Pu, who has been charged with incitement, via video conferencing.

A lawsuit under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code against three Taungup residents including a member of the Arakan League for Democracy (ALD) has been dismissed, and the three men walked free on Wednesday along with hundreds of other prisoners released by Myanmar’s military regime. 

Ko Kyaw Than Hlaing, a former chairperson of the Arakan Social Association Japan (ASAJ) who was arrested at Yangon International Airport on June 25, was released on Tuesday.

Another 15 people including six members of a Border Guard Force (BGF) have tested positive for Covid-19 in Maungdaw town as a makeshift medical facility to accommodate an overflow of coronavirus patients was set up at Maungdaw’s Thiri Mingalar Hall this week.  

Hearings before the Thandwe District Court in the cases of nine people charged under the Counter-Terrorism Law, which had been scheduled for June 29, were postponed due to a flareup of Covid-19 cases in the region, according to a lawyer involved in the proceedings. 

Explosive remnants of war (ERWs) should not be concentrated in one place, said Ko Zaw Zaw Tun, general secretary of the Rakhine Ethnics Congress (REC), following reports of a cache of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Arakan State’s Rathedaung Township.

About 100 tonnes of timber reportedly intended for illegal export to Bangladesh were seized along with eight motorboats at the mouth of Naf River in Maungdaw, Arakan State, over the past three months.

A woman infected with Covid-19 and receiving medical treatment at Maungdaw District People’s Hospital has suffered nerve damage and is reportedly unable to speak.