A month at home in isolation may seem like an eternity for those unaccustomed to a lack of person-to-person contact, but the experiences of Japan’s large numbers of hikikomori or social recluses, may offer some hints on how to stay sane during the coronavirus pandemic.Japan’s health ministry defines hikikomori as people who have remained isolated at home for at least six consecutive months, not going to school or work and not interacting with people outside their family.According to government…
When Ho Ching posts on Facebook, Singapore pays attention. Is that a problem?
For many Singaporeans, the prime minister’s wife Ho Ching and her prolific Facebook persona are one and the same.Once described as firmly publicity shy, Ho – the long-time head of Temasek Holdings, the island nation’s sovereign investment firm – has become one of the most closely watched personalities on social media in the city state.A recent This Week in Asia examination of data compiled by social-media tracking platform CrowdTangle showed the scale of her presence on Facebook, where her…
India’s new bridge in Himalayas could potentially reignite China border dispute
India has opened a new all-weather access point in a disputed part of its border with China to enable faster movement of troops and artillery, another potential irritant in relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.The new bridge, which can bear 40 tons of weight, was built in Arunachal Pradesh in India’s remote northeast, a region claimed by China that is near the scene of previous clashes. Border intrusions have risen 50 per cent in 2019 compared to the previous year, people with…
Philippines sends nurses around the world but now its health care system is overwhelmed by coronavirus
The Philippines is known for training nurses and exporting them to all corners of the world, but now the nation finds itself short-handed just as its number of coronavirus infections and deaths skyrocket.The country’s death toll from Covid-19 has surged nearly fivefold since April 1 to 462, and the confirmed cases have tripled to 6,981. That’s despite President Rodrigo Duterte imposing a lockdown on the main island of Luzon until at least April 30.With more Filipinos becoming sick, the…
Coronavirus: Singapore jails man who breached stay-home notice to have pork rib soup
A 34-year-old man who breached his 14-day stay-home notice to have bak kut teh (pork rib soup) in public after returning from abroad last month was sentenced to six weeks in jail by a Singapore court on Thursday. Alan Tham Xiang Sheng became the first individual to be dealt with for an offence related to Covid-19. Five others have been similarly charged and their cases are still pending before the courts.Stay-home notices are issued to those returning from abroad to prevent the spread of…
Coronavirus: Singapore reassigns aircrew, other workers to help in hospitals, public transport
Serving drinks at 30,000 feet and explaining the intricacies of the in-flight entertainment system were all in a day’s work for Singapore Airlines cabin crew until the coronavirus turned the world upside down.Now Geraldine Loo spends her days guiding commuters at the city’s train stations, while colleague Norazillah Zayadi is working shifts in a hospital.These are just some of the workers who have been redeployed in Singapore as Covid-19 brings some jobs to a standstill and creates surging…
In Japan, coronavirus crisis traps families at home with domestic abuse
A new hotline for victims of domestic violence in Japan that opened on Monday is “absolutely needed”, according to experts, as the economic and social impacts of the coronavirus crisis begin to deepen.Unveiled by Seiko Hashimoto, the minister for women’s empowerment, the free hotline is presently available from 9am to 9pm, but from April 29 it is planned to be a 24-hour service, with support available in a number of foreign languages – including Thai, Tagalog, Korean and Vietnamese – from May 1…
Coronavirus: Chinese, Philippine medical experts share tips in landmark visit
A visiting team of Chinese medical experts has been giving tips to Philippine front-line medical workers on how to beat the coronavirus.The team of 12 doctors and nurses, visiting the Philippines in the first exchange of its kind between the two countries, urged their counterparts at hospitals on the front line of the fight against the virus to learn from their experiences in Wuhan, the early epicentre of the outbreak.The team, headed by Dr Weng Shangeng, vice-president of The First Affiliated…
Coronavirus quarantine in Thailand: great food and fast Wi-fi, sleeping with a stranger … and a shame about my underpants
I stood at the curb with a group of 75 newly returned Thai citizens from Indonesia. After three hours of tedious processing at Suvarnabhumi Airport, they still wouldn’t let us leave. Officials posed with us for photographs as if we were celebrities.“Don’t worry,” one officer said through his surgical mask. “Just be patient.”We were grateful to be back in Thailand. Many had been stuck overseas, flights cancelled due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. We were finally going home. Or so we thought…
Jokowi’s tough coronavirus choice: lock down Indonesia or let millions earn a living
Indonesia announced its first Covid-19 case on March 2, more than a month after its neighbours Singapore and Malaysia reported their first infections, and subsequently, President Joko Widodo admitted that some information had been withheld from the public to avoid causing alarm. With Indonesia now having 6,760 infections and 590 deaths, the highest number of fatalities in Southeast Asia, there are worries about whether the health care sector can handle the expected continued surge in cases.
…