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YANGON: Testing for the coronavirus collapsed in Myanmar after a military coup sparked a doctor-led campaign of civil disobedience and mass protests swept the country, official test figures showed.
The number of daily tests reported late on Monday (February 8) stood at 1,987, the lowest number since December 29, compared with more than 9,000 a week earlier and an average of more than 17,000 a day in the week before the February 1 coup. Since the coup, tests per day have averaged 9,350.
READ: Myanmar doctors on the anti-coup front line as dissent spreads
The number of cases found Monday was just four, compared to an average of 420 per day in the last week of January.
A spokesman for the Health Ministry declined to comment. In a statement Monday, the ministry asked health workers for help with a vaccination campaign that began late last month.
He said that “all staff members are strongly urged to return to their duties with the well-being of patients in mind.”
Myanmar has suffered one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in Southeast Asia with a total of 31,177 deaths out of more than 141,000 cases.
READ: Myanmar receives first batch of COVID-19 vaccines from India
Health workers have been at the forefront of a campaign of civil disobedience against the coup, stopping work to demand the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and recognition of her party’s great victory in the November elections. .
The Aung San Suu Kyi government had instituted shutdowns that helped reduce the spread of the virus and the number of deaths since its peak in October, but also had a strong economic impact on one of the poorest countries in the region.
Board Leader Min Aung Hlaing, whose removal and detention of the popular Aung San Suu Kyi sparked mass protests, vowed in his first televised address on Monday to make the fight against COVID-19 a priority, including vaccines for all. .
The army seized power citing fraud in last year’s elections, a claim that the electoral commission had rejected.
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