With Taungup Township tallying the second highest third-wave coronavirus death toll in Arakan State, people looking for routine medical care and treatment for common illnesses are finding health clinics closed and alternatives limited as shortages of basic medicines are reported at pharmacies across the state.

Pregnant women in camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State have not had access to full healthcare services during the ongoing third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Arakan State has surpassed 3,000 cases of Covid-19 since the pandemic’s third wave began some two months ago, with 239 fatalities attributed to the disease over that period, according to the state’s Department of Public Health (DPH).  

An oxygen plant in Mrauk-U was forced to temporarily halt production as the electricity supply to the town was cut off this week, according to officials from the facility. 

The United League of Arakan, the political wing of the Arakan Army, has announced plans to establish a judiciary parallel to the existing legal system in the state, saying it would be accepting complaints in an effort to provide another path to justice for the wronged.  

Arakan State Administration Council spokesman U Hla Thein has urged people not to attempt to provide medical treatment at home if someone is suspected of contracting Covid-19.

Food supplies for flood victims in northern Maungdaw Township cannot be transported to their intended destinations because bridges connecting the villages were damaged or destroyed during the recent flooding. 

Four villages in Myebon Township and three villages in Ann Township, as well as Kanhtaunggyi town, have reportedly been without electricity for nine days as of August 3.

Local civil society groups and authorities in Arakan State’s Ramree Township have been working together to reduce the spread of Covid-19 since August 3, in part by detaining those caught out in public without a face mask after 12 noon. 

Myanmar’s military caretaker government on Sunday appointed a retired deputy director of the Education Department in Arakan State as minister for ethnic affairs in Chin State.

Civil society organisations that are assisting with Covid-19 prevention activities in Arakan State’s Ramree Township are in desperate need of personal protective equipment (PPE), they said, including hazmat suits and other coronavirus preventive supplies. 

 Ethnic literature teachers working as daily-wage staff in Arakan State have not yet received their salaries for July, according to the teachers. 

Residents in Thandwe Township, Arakan State, have been receiving the Covid-19 vaccine since July 30, causing crowds that are themselves raising concerns about the potential spread of the virus, according to local social organisations. 

Basic food items such as rice, cooking oil and iodised salt are in short supply at the Kanhtaunggyi camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State’s Myebon Township, according to a camp official.  

About 100,000 people in Arakan State will be inoculated with the recently shipped Covid-19 vaccine donated by China, but there are no plans to vaccinate journalists with that supply, the Arakan State Administration Council said on July 31. 

Authorities in the Arakan State capital Sittwe put the kibosh on a local charity’s plans to distribute low-cost basic foodstuffs to those in need over the weekend, with the officials citing fears that the event would draw a crowd during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

With spillover creek water entering some wards in Thandwe, Arakan State, on Sunday morning, residents are concerned about the possibility of fresh flooding less than a week after the town was inundated. 

Fifty-eight out of 100 people tested for coronavirus in Arakan State returned positive results in a recent sampling, according to Dr. Soe Win Paing, assistant director of the state’s Department of Public Health (DPH).

Arakan State does not have enough oxygen and must rely on O₂ supplies from other parts of Myanmar to treat Covid-19 patients in the state, Arakan State Administration Council spokesman U Hla Thein told reporters on Saturday.