Myanmar sees record Covid-19 cases as junta continues assault on health workers

With medics and the broader public in open revolt against the coup regime, it is unclear how the new wave will be contained

Myanmar Now

Published on Jul 6, 2021

Volunteers carry the body of someone who died of Covid-19 in October 2020 (Myanmar Now)

Myanmar has recorded another record number of Covid-19 cases, as well as 42 more deaths, with its already struggling healthcare system lying in tatters as the military junta continues its assault against medical workers defying its rule.

There were 2,969 news cases logged on Monday, which topped a record of 2,318 set the day before and brought the total number of infections since the start of the pandemic to 168,374, with a total of 3,461 deaths.

Monday’s death toll was lower than the previous record of 48 set on October 11 last year, but that figure looked set to rise as doctors warned the country was now dealing with higher infection rates from new variants of the virus.

Many medics who oppose the junta have been forced into hiding, including scores who face arrest warrants for their involvement in the Civil Disobedience Movement.

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Last month the junta detained the former head of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout and charged her with high treason after she became a prominent leader in the anti-coup movement.

Medics and others have refused to be vaccinated under the regime to signal that they reject its legitimacy.

With much of the population in open revolt against its rule, the coup regime has been unable to properly govern the country amid spiralling violence in cities and rural areas across the country.

It is therefore unclear how an effective national strategy to contain the latest outbreak could work.

One doctor said the proportion of his patients dying from the disease had increased because of new variants.

“Now that the virus has mutated, the mortality rate of the disease has skyrocketed,” said Dr Kyaw Min Tun, who works at a free clinic treating coronavirus patients in Yangon.

“Many of our clinic’s patients had low blood oxygen levels on arrival. We had to try our best to give them the fastest and most efficient treatment possible,” he added.

Just before the February 1 coup, Myanmar had brought a surge of cases under control. After the power grab, testing and vaccinations were severely disrupted as healthcare workers went on strike and the junta responded with threats, arrests, and brutal violence.

It is possible that many cases went unrecorded in the following weeks and months as the official seven-day average hovered at around 20 cases per day.

In early June, recorded cases began to spike again. Cases have been rising in Yangon, Mandalay, Pathein, Myaungmya, Sittwe and Maungdaw. People have also tested positive in Myaungmya and Pathein in Ayeyarwady Region, and Buthidaung and Maungdaw in Rakhine.

One Yangon resident told Myanmar Now that although three of their relatives were badly sick with coronavirus symptoms, they have decided to stay home.

“The reason we’re not going to hospitals is that even if we did… they wouldn’t have any space for us and then, there’s going to be multiple transfers between hospitals, and on top of all that many of the hospitals are not accepting patients if they have lost their sense of smell,” the resident said.

“Therefore, we are just choosing to consult with the doctors we know and treat the patients at home under their guidelines,” they added.

The military council has said it plans to replace healthcare workers who have gone on strike and been forced into hiding.

On Sunday evening, the military council issued a stay-at-home order in Pathein, Myaungmya and Thabaung townships, which included an order to close schools.

In recent days more than 150 border guard police and their family members have tested positive for the virus in Rakhine State.

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Pyu Saw Htee members surrender to resistance fighters in Yaw and hand over weapons

The Yaw Defence Force says it is monitoring the detainees and does not trust them

Myanmar Now

Published on Oct 15, 2021

Muskets confiscated from Pyu Saw Htee members who surrendered to the YDF (YDF)

About 30 members of the military-backed Pyu Saw Htee group surrendered to resistance fighters in upper Myanmar’s Yaw region on Thursday and handed over muskets given to them by the military.

The group surrendered in Htilin Township, Magway Region, after coming under attack from the Yaw Defence Force (YDF) and receiving no protection from the military, said an officer from the Htilin branch of the YDF.

“We’re still monitoring them as we can’t trust them yet,” he told Myanmar Now. “They came from nearby villages.”

The Pyu Saw Htee collective was formed with supporters of the military in the wake of the February 1 coup with the aim of undermining anti-dictatorship forces with threats and violence.

Pyu Saw Htee members have issued death threats against civilians in Sagaing Region’s Mingin and in Mandalay Region’s Myingyan.

Those who surrendered in the Yaw region have signed a pledge promising to stand with the people, the YDF officer said.

On Sunday Htilin YDF fighters intercepted Pyu Saw Htee members carrying weapons on motorcycles near the village of Zee Taw, killing one Pyu Saw Htee member and confiscating 20 muskets.

The military offered no help to Pyu Saw Htee in the wake of the attack and so the Pyu Saw Htee members decided to surrender, the YDF officer said.

“The military council did not show at all and the Pyu Saw Htee members realised that the military could not provide protection for them. So they came to us,” he said.

The muskets that the Pyu Saw Htee members surrendered with were originally confiscated from resistance fighters by the military, he added.

“They were given those weapons by the military to fight back against the PDF,” he said, referring to the People’s Defence Force.

The Pyu Saw Htee members who surrendered to the YDF have threatened local resistance fighters and passed information about them to the military, he said.

“They even requested weapons from the police. They’re still in the preparation phase. No regular civilian would have access to weapons from the military council. But they claimed that they became members of the Pyu Saw Htee unknowingly,” said the YDF officer.

Locals are also suspicious of the intentions of those who surrendered.

“They formed the group because they did not like the defence forces in the first place. It appears that they were only surrendering because they were afraid for their lives as the military council units closest to Htilin cannot provide them protection,” said a Htilin resident.

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The remains of a house burned by soldiers in Htanpinkone village on September 28 (Supplied)

Junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun claimed during a press conference on September 15 that Pyu Saw Htee was not formed by the military and did not receive any training or weapons from it.

Late last month junta soldiers set fire to five houses in the village of Htanpinkone, in Htilin, because they suspected resistance fighters were staying there, according to the YDF.

Local resistance groups clashed with soldiers in Htilin in May and June.

The junta has deployed thousands of troops to Chin State and Sagaing and Magway regions in recent weeks in what appears to be preparation for major offensives against resistance groups, which have inflicted severe casualties against junta forces since the coup.

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Coalition of Chin resistance fighters attacks soldiers who torched villages

It is unclear if any junta soldiers were killed in the clash

Myanmar Now

Published on Oct 15, 2021

The village of Rialti seen burning on Thursday morning (Supplied)

A coalition of resistance fighters from the Chin National Army (CNA) and the Chin National Defence Force (CNDF) launched an attack on Thursday against a military unit that had been burning down homes in the north of the state.

It is unclear if anyone was killed or injured in the fighting but the resistance fighters say they suffered no casualties.

Junta soldiers stationed along the road connecting the towns of Falam and Hakha burned down every one of the roughly 10 houses in the village of Rialti, as well as a church, on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, CNDF spokesperson Salai William told Myanmar Now.

“They torched seven houses in Rialti last night… and then torched the remaining houses this morning,” he said on Thursday. “Even the church was not spared. They also torched six houses in a village called Talanrawn, which was a mile away from Rialti.”

Both villages are about 10 miles from Falam and have just a few dozen residents.

Salai Htet Ni, a spokesperson for the CNF, told Myanmar Now the junta soldiers also fired shells.

“The military units heading towards Hakha from Falam were stationed there and they started torching houses and firing shells. Our troops went there in cars today and intercepted them,” he said on Thursday.

“The clash lasted around 30 minutes. They also started firing shells from Falam township. There were no casualties on our side but I haven’t heard anything about their side.”

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Two armoured trucks seen passing through Falam on October 12 (Supplied)

Salai Willian said soldiers from the junta’s 268th Infantry Battalion in Falam fired three rounds of 122mm shells towards the area of the clash at around 11am on Thursday.

The military has been sending reinforcements to Chin since the beginning of October, with resistance forces launching frequent ambushes in response.

On Wednesday the coalition of Chin groups said it killed five junta soldiers when it attacked a separate military column travelling from Hakha in the direction of Falam.

On the same day, a convoy of two armoured vehicles and over 80 military trucks arrived in Mindat from Pakokku in Magway Region, while over 40 trucks and hundreds of soldiers were seen heading from Kalay in Sagaing Region towards Falam on Tuesday.

On Monday soldiers raided the village of Tiphir, on the road between Kalay and Falam, forcing residents to flee into surrounding forests. Two days later two villagers were found dead with bullet wounds, a villager there said. Locals are convinced junta soldiers killed them.

The victims were Thawng Lun Mang, a 29-year-old father of two, and Salai Salai Thawng Nei Mawi, aged 34. Their funerals were held on Wednesday.

The junta has sent thousands of troops to Chin, Sagaing and Magway in preparation for what many fear will be massive offensives against resistance fighters. Every township in Chin except Hakha has been under a junta-imposed internet blackout since September 23.

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Junta reportedly eyeing November reopening of schools

Striking teachers dismiss a plan to reopen schools as an attempt to normalise military rule, and vow to continue their resistance to the junta

Myanmar Now

Published on Oct 15, 2021

People in Mandalay protest against a ‘dark age of education’ under the military on March 22 (EPA)

The military council is reportedly planning to reopen primary, middle and high schools as early as November despite continued threats of Covid-19 and ongoing teacher strikes and student boycotts in accordance with the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) aimed at toppling the junta.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most schools were already closed at the time of Myanmar’s February 1 military coup. The junta attempted to reopen them nationwide on June 1, the start of Myanmar’s academic year, but more than half of the country’s 400,000 teachers were on strike and just 10 percent of the estimated 9 million students nationwide opted to enrol. More than 100 striking teachers have also been charged under the Penal Code’s Section 505a for incitement, according to the Myanmar Teachers’ Federation.

Those schools that did reopen in June were later closed again on July 9 when the third wave of the pandemic hit the country.

However, a photo of a military council notice in Ayeyarwady Region’s Yegyi Township has recently gone viral online instructing the township education officer to prepare the schools to reopen in November.

While an official date for reopening has not been announced, the junta’s information team alluded on Wednesday that such an event was approaching but had been obstructed by anti-coup entities.

They accused “political extremist members and supporters” of the National League for Democracy, the National Unity Government and the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw of committing arson in schools, inciting violence, and threatening education staff into joining the CDM “while officials made preparations for the reopening of schools.”

A spokesperson from the strike committee of a union for basic education staff—and a striking teacher himself—said his group is against any move by the military to reopen schools, and dismiss it as an attempt by the generals to normalise military administration.

As the people’s resistance war against the military and the “revolutionary momentum” continues to gain strength, he said that neither he nor his colleagues could break away from the movement.

“It is just impossible for us to become non-CDM [staff] again because we have stayed strong even under their rigorous oppression. In this current situation, we don’t care if they reopen schools—we will continue our resistance,” he said.

Presumably in connection with the reopening of schools, the military council also declared on its newspaper on Wednesday that it was launching a nationwide Covid-19 vaccination program through October 25 for students over the age of 12 using the Chinese-manufactured Sinovac. However, they provided details only for how those vaccines would be administered in the capital, Naypyitaw.

Education staff across the country confirmed to Myanmar Now that they had been told the same announcement by local junta authorities that school would open following the vaccination scheme.

Vaccination rates are low among adults, with rates unknown except for statistics released by the junta’s health department on Tuesday suggesting that just 4.2 million of Myanmar’s more than 50 million people have received two doses of any jab.

Khant Lu Aung, the father of a high school student from Mandalay who would be eligible for re-enrolment and vaccination, said he did not send his son back to school after the military seized power and would continue to keep him out of the junta’s education system.

“Under a dictatorship, I am not interested in whether the schools open or close. Even if they are really going to reopen, I won’t let my kid go there. Under their rule, whether it is healthcare or education, nothing is reliable,” Khant Lu Aung told Myanmar Now.

Nilar Win, a primary school teacher taking part in the CDM who chose not to reveal her location for security reasons, told Myanmar Now she was concerned about the safety of possibly bringing students back to school next month, given the health crisis and the ongoing instability in the country.

“It is very questionable that they are reopening schools for the children’s well-being,” she said, adding that the junta has even talked to teachers about “squeezing two school years into one” to make up for learning time lost during the pandemic.

Teaching modules are typically divided into 36 weeks of lessons, she explained, adding that no information had been shared with teachers about the upcoming curriculum.

Khant Lu Aung told Myanmar Now that he had prepared for his child to study some academic subjects online during the current school year but that he did not have a long-term plan for their education amid the unrest.

Myanmar Now tried to contact executive director of the junta’s education department Ko Lay Win to comment on the planned reopening of schools, but the calls went unanswered.