With no end in sight to the Covid-19 pandemic’s ongoing third wave, a shortage of basic and widely used medicines and concerns about the economic impacts of prolonged disruption to the border trade are just a few of the knock-on effects being felt across Arakan State.  

Ko Aung Hlaing Win, chairman of the Moe Pyinnyar Dana Philanthropic Association in Taungup Township, was transferred to the Taungup Township Police Station by the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) on July 14, according to family members of the detainee. 

The Sinbawkaing IDP camp in Mrauk-U Township, Arakan State, has been under lockdown from July 14 after an IDP woman tested positive for Covid-19, manager of the camp Mrata Zaung Sayadaw said.  

Two women infected with Covid-19 in Taungup Township, Arakan State, died on Thursday morning, and total fatalities statewide since June 28 reached 26.   

Travellers to Arakan State will be put under quarantine if they come from townships under stay-at-home orders imposed by the Ministry of Health and Sports, the Arakan State-level State Administration Council member U Hla Thein told journalists on July 14. 

Travel by motorway, waterway and flight is not suspended in Arakan State but regulations on travellers have been tightened, the Arakan State Administration Council says, as Covid-19 infection rates continue to rise nationwide. 

No fighting between the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) and Arakan Army (AA) is currently taking place in Arakan State, but some villages in Rathedaung Township have left farmland uncultivated due to the nearby presence of Tatmadaw troops, according to locals. 

Strand Road and View Point Beach in Sittwe will be closed on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. due to the continuing spread of Covid-19 in Arakan State, according to the state’s military council. 

Travel by motorway, waterway and flight is not suspended in Arakan State but regulations on travellers have been tightened, the Arakan State Administration Council says, as Covid-19 infection rates continue to rise nationwide. 

The number of Covid-19 cases in Arakan State during the ongoing third wave of the pandemic neared 1,000 on Tuesday as health officials and civil society voiced concerns about lax adherence to preventive regulations among members of the public. 

Fifty-five of 98 hotels and guesthouses in Arakan State are now open in line with Covid-19 preventive regulations, according to the state’s Directorate of Hotels and Tourism. 

Thandwe District General Hospital in Arakan State is verging on a shortage of oxygen for emergency Covid-19 patients, according to a monk who is helping with virus-related affairs in Thandwe, as a push for donors to set up an oxygen generator for the hospital continues. 

Five youths arrested in connection with two bomb blasts in Paletwa, Chin State, on May 28 were taken back to the Paletwa Township police station from the Sittwe’s Myoma police station on July 11 without trial, according to family members. 

Fifteen out of 856 Covid-19 cases recorded in Arakan State as of July 12 are healthcare personnel from six different townships, according to Dr. Soe Win Paing, assistant director of the Arakan State Department of Public Health. 

All Ministry of Education employees have been instructed to work on a two-week-on, two-week-off rotational basis, with in-person staff levels reduced to 50% to prevent the spread of Covid-19, according to a July 12 directive from the Arakan State education office.

Eight of the Covid-19 patients in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, have been given supplemental oxygen and if the virus-infected population increases, local healthcare providers may find themselves facing a shortage of it, according to the township Department of Public Health (DPH). 

The deputy head of the Kyaukphyu District Police and the assistant director of the district’s Road Department succumbed to Covid-19 on Monday as the Arakan State death toll since the pandemic’s third wave began rose to 16. 

Commodity prices in Arakan State have risen by 30-70% amid the ongoing third wave of Covid-19, according to businesspeople and merchants.

A man on a highway bus traveling to Thandwe from Yangon died en route on Sunday and was later found to have been infected with Covid-19, with two fellow passengers subsequently also testing positive for the virus.