Health workers get a swab from a woman in a makeshift centre tent set up in a hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 23, amid the COVID-19 outbreak. (Photo: Reuters)Hanoi(VNA) – The Philippines will not allow students to go back to school until acoronavirus vaccine is available, said President Rodrigo Duterte in a speechaired on May 25 evening.
Some 25 millionprimary and secondary students in the Philippines were due to return to school at the end ofAugust after classes were shut down in March as a preventive measure to containthe spread of the COVID-19.
Duterte said therisk was too great, even if it held students back academically. “For me,vaccine first,” he said, adding that if the vaccine is already there, he willagree to reopen schools.
Though researchershave launched an unprecedented global effort to quickly develop a vaccine, itis not clear when a viable candidate will be proven and distributed on a largescale.
ThePhilippine Health Ministry reported 13 deaths and 350 new COVID-19 cases on May26, taking the country’s count to 14,669 confirmed cases and 886 deaths
On May26, the Thai cabinet approved to extend the state of emergency until the end ofJune as proposed by the National Security Council (NSC). The country has so farrecorded 3,045 coronavirus cases and 57 deaths.
A panel, chairedby National Security Council secretary-general General Somsak Rungsita, isscheduled the next day to discuss the third phase of easing lockdown measuresas well as whether the curfew hours should be cut to midnight to 4:00 am. Thethird phase of easing measures is expected to kick in from June 1.
The same day,Malaysian Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced Malaysiawill deport all illegal immigrants tested negative for COVID-19 to theircountries of origin.
Ismail Sabri saidmatters relating to the deportation process will be discussed by the ForeignMinistry and their counterparts and embassies of the countries involved soon.
A total of 227illegal immigrants detained at three immigration depots in Selangor and KualaLumpur, have tested positive for the coronavirus. They included 53 Bangladeshipeople, 41 Indians and 38 Indonesians.
In Indonesia, 415people tested positive for the virus on May 26, putting the national tally at23,165 with 1,418 deaths.
Also on May 26, Singapore announced a new economic stimulus package worth several billion USD, the fourth in the past several months, to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic's impacts on businesses and households in the country.
Singapore counted 383 new cases of COVID-19 on May 26, bringing the total to 32,343. /.
