MYANMAR (UCAN): Charles Cardinal Bo of Yangon, Myanmar, and the city’s chief minister, Phyo Min Thein, visited a Church-owned facility in Thanlyin township on October 3 to observe preparations to make it a quarantine centre. The facility will accommodate around 300 people and will be staffed by young people and women volunteers.
The Church’s offer to Myanmar’s government comes as the country grapples with a second wave Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infections with cases surging on a daily basis.
Yangon, the country’s most populous city, has the highest number of cases and authorities have quickly arranged for treatment centres and quarantine facilities, while the stay-at-home order has been extended until the end of October.
The country had relatively few cases with only six deaths in four months, but has been gripped by a surge of infections since the first locally transmitted case was reported in Rakhine on August 16.
Health officials are trying to contain Covid-19 in an impoverished nation where the healthcare system is overwhelmed.
The Church joined the fight against Covid-19 by offering buildings to serve as quarantine centres, sending young volunteers to the front line and providing preventive gear to hospitals and vulnerable groups.
Various religious groups have also reached out to the poor to provide food and non-food items as thousands of people struggle to survive amid restrictions and the closure of factories and businesses.
In a short statement released on October 3, Cardinal Bo expressed his gratitude to the global solidarity emerging among people of the world as Myanmar battles the contagion.
He said that during these challenging times the Church in Myanmar has balanced safety with solidarity and responded by up-scaling their response. The Church provides food to the most affected, starting with 1,000 families for three months, motivating people to feed at least 50 poor families in each parish.
It also plans to establish an online pastoral presence and online counselling centre.
Cardinal Bo is leading the Church’s national coordination team that prioritises prevention and awareness campaigns as well as offering quarantine facilities in dioceses across the country.
St. Joseph’s National Catholic Major Seminary in Yangon, other seminaries and Church facilities in Mandalay, and Banmaw in Kachin state ,have been converted into quarantine centres for returnees from Thailand and China.
In the wake of skyrocketing cases, public Masses have been banned again and services have moved online.
“We will detect more positive cases because we have started using antigen test kits which can give results quickly. This means we will be able to provide treatment quickly,” state counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi said in a televised speech on October 5.
“Covid-19 has proven that in our country we are capable of uniting when faced with daunting challenges. Our citizens can unite in trying times. This gives us strength. Our people need to be extremely vigilant until we receive the vaccine,” she said.
As of October 5, more than 43,500 people had been quarantined in some 5,000 quarantine facilities across Myanmar, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports.
Myanmar reported 2,158 new cases on October 11, bringing the total cumulative cases to 26,064 with 598 deaths and 9,742 recoveries, according to WHO and Worldometer statistics.
Myanmar has the fourth-highest number of cases in the ASEAN behind the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore.
According to the latest data, more than 1,070,355 people have died out of more than 37 million confirmed cases worldwide.
