Officials in a Myanmar state and region on Tuesday have reversed earlier decisions to impose controversial two-week lockdowns to prevent the spread of the contagious coronavirus and are now allowing residents to leave their homes for essential services, as Myanmar added two more fatalities to its death count on Wednesday.
The country’s number of confirmed coronavirus still stands at 22, though the number of fatalities has risen to three, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports.
The Sagaing regional government in northern Myanmar previously said the lockdown would take effect April 7 and run until April 21 Residents were ordered to remain at home and only go out to buy food or receive medical care. Those who had to travel to other states or regions during emergency situations were instructed to first obtain permission from the regional government.
Official are now letting residents move about to go to supermarkets, gas stations, banks, and private clinics and said they plan to replace the region’s working committee on the prevention of the coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19.
“On April 8, they removed the order and said that the new coronavirus control and emergency response committee led by chief minister will release new announcements,” said Lar Htaung Htan, Sagaing’s minister of Chin ethnic affairs. “The new committee will be formed tomorrow and then decide what to do.”
Nay Oo, a member of coronavirus prevention committee from Sagaing’s Monywa township said that the announcement about the revamped committee means that similar township-level committee will become null and void.
“Because of the new regional-level committee formed by the chief minister, the township committees are automatically cancelled, and we are preparing to transfer remaining donations to the new committee,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service.
Township committees comprise 24 members, including two parliamentarians and an administrator.
The regional government has instructed township administrators to set up area donation centers for the prevention and control of the coronavirus.
Aung Ne Myo, a member of the group Save Monywa which runs its own donation center said his organization would suspend operations once the government issued instructions.
“The instructions have not yet been issued, [but] if they are, we will suspend our donation center immediately,” he said.
Though shopping centers are closed in Monywa township, people are moving around and going about their daily business as usual.
Aung Myo, an upper house lawmaker from Sagaing to the online journal The Irrawaddy that officials dropped the lockdown order after it caused a stir among residents.
“The previous order was causing a controversy among residents,” he was quoted as saying.” It could have created a difficult situation for residents if they had to observe recommendations from township officials every time they have to travel.”
Quarantine violators
Officials in eastern Myanmar’s Kayah state also dropped a recently ordered lockdown on residents aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus, following criticism that the move could have a detrimental effect on local businesses and cause a public panic, The Irrawaddy said.
The Kayah state government said it made the decision to avoid spreading panic or harming the state socially and economically, it said.
Lockdowns ordered by officials in other states and regions, including Yangon and Mandalay region, remain in place.
Despite a government-ordered 14-day quarantine for Myanmar and foreign nationals who return to the country and those suspected of COVID-19 infections, health volunteers in central and northern Myanmar have reported several cases of people evading the isolation requirement. Those who violate mandatory quarantines are subject to jail terms.
A man from Ye-U, a town in the Shwebo district of Sagaing, was sentenced Tuesday to six months in prison for breaking a nationwide mandatory 14-day quarantine, local police said.
Authorities picked up the individual, who has not been publicly named, the same day and changed him, said the officer from the Ye-U Myoma Police Station
“His test result is negative, but he still needs to be in quarantine,” the officer said. “He was sent to Shwe-Bo Jail first, but later he was taken to a quarantine center later when he had a fever.”
In a similar case, a man in a quarantine facility in the central Myanmar city of Mandalay received a six-month prison sentence last week for leaving the shelter to buy some drinks and then acting hostilely towards authorities when confronted.
People leave a medical facility in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw following a 14-day quarantine to ensure they had not contracted the coronavirus while abroad, April 8, 2020.
Credit: RFA video screenshot
Quarantined people released
Authorities in the capital Naypyidaw meanwhile have released more than 50 quarantined people, but warned that COVID-19 symptoms could still develop after isolation periods.
Those released, who had all returned to Myanmar from abroad, were the first group of quarantined individuals to be sent home out of more than 1,000 people currently held in isolation in the country.
“We sent 20 people from Dekkhinathiri, 27 people from Pobbathiri, and 10 people from Zeyarthiri townships back home,” said Dr. Myat Wunna Soe, deputy director general of the Naypyidaw Public Health Department under the Ministry of Health and Sports, on Wednesday.
Darli Win Su, one of those released from quarantine encouraged people to follow the government’s advice and directives regarding the coronavirus.
“What I would like to tell people is to wash their hands, use face masks, [practice] social distancing, and stay at home,” she said.
“Please help the nation by following directions from the government,” she added.
Another person among the group, Soe Hlaing, who had returned to Myanmar from China, said it was imperative that those coming back to the country be tested for the virus.
“People who return home from abroad should be tested at health centers or hospitals because they can’t know if they are positive,” he said.
Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi said during a television talk show with health officials from Magway region that people who complete quarantines must continue to be careful and inform health centers of any symptoms they come down with after they return to their homes.
Reported by Waiyan Moe Myint and Thiha Tun for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Khin E and Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.