24 February 2021. Local authorities across Laos continue to implement preventive measures and closely monitor people entering the country to prevent a second wave of COVID-19 outbreak. A total of 2,335 people has been quarantined at 27 accommodation centers across the country. https://www.xinhuanet.com/english/asiapacific/2021-02/24/c_139763867.htm

24 February 2021. China has made progress in tuberculosis control, but this disease remains a burden in many regions of China. Time-series analysis was performed to examine changes in the rates of newly notified and newly smear-positive cases of tuberculosis in different regions of China from 1997 to 2018 and assessed the effect of the current control program.https://idpjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40249-021-00806-7

25 February 2021. New variants of the African swine fever virus circulating in China appear to cause a milder form of the disease, making it less deadly but harder to detect and to get under control.https://www.livemint.com/science/health/variants-of-african-swine-fever-virus-found-in-china-11614248574231.html

27 February 2021. The first batch of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines that arrived Thailand has passed the Department of Medical Sciences’ quality tests and are ready for delivery to state hospitals. The vaccines will be sent to 13 provinceshttps://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2075283/shots-pass-testing-rollout-on-the-way

17 February 2021. HCMC and some northern localities will isolate people returning from Covid-19 hotspots after Tet for 14 days to prevent possible coronavirus spread, especially in the current Covid-19 epicenter.https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/hcmc-mandates-14-day-quarantine-for-returnees-from-covid-19-hotspots-after-tet-4236113.html

17 February 2021. Details of COVID-19 availability in all ten ASEAN countries and another 30 Asian nations. Due to the developing situation in China and Asia concerning the Coronavirus, this article as a running live update service to keep updated information with the latest news.https://www.aseanbriefing.com/news/covid-19-vaccine-roll-outs-in-asean-asia-live-updates-by-country/

16 February 2021. Watching for novel pathogens in Southeast Asia has recently become an important part of the global effort to understand the pandemic. The Cambodian report helped confirm the accuracy of the P.C.R. test, and it revealed that only minor changes in the sequences were appearing.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/16/world/a-lab-in-cambodia-is-on-the-lookout-for-the-next-pandemic.html

15 February 2021. Investigators from the World Health Organization (WHO) looking into the origins of coronavirus in China have discovered signs the outbreak was much wider in Wuhan in December 2019 than previously thought, and are urgently seeking access to hundreds of thousands of blood samples from the city that China has not so far let them examine.https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/14/health/who-mission-china-intl/index.html

14 February 2021. Thailand, as one of the leading tourist destinations in the world, is not convinced about the vaccine passport yet. The health authorities of Thailand states that the best international agreement on traveling during the COVID-19 pandemic is still a 14-day quarantine.https://scandasia.com/thailand-not-onboard-with-nordic-and-eu-vaccine-passports-yet/

14 February 2021. A team of experts selected by the World Health Organization to investigate the origins of the virus that caused the Covid-19 pandemic returned last week from Wuhan, site of the world’s first outbreak. With Chinese scientists, they plans to produce a joint report on the possible origins of the virus.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/14/health/WHO-covid-daszak-china-virus.html?referringSource=articleShare