Myanmar orders Yangon residents to stay at home from Monday

Volunteers take the temperature of residents by a barrier blocking access to minor roads with a sign urging residents to stay at home in Yangon, on Sept 11, 2020. PHOTO: AFP

Updated

Published

Sep 20, 2020, 10:49 PM

YANGON (REUTERS) - Myanmar announced a stay-at-home order for its biggest city Yangon after reporting a record daily increase in new cases of Covid-19 on Sunday (Sept 20).

The order in Yangon, Myanmar's commercial capital, comes into effect on Monday and will force all employees to work from home. Schools were already closed under previous lockdown measures.

The health ministry said on Sunday it had recorded 671 new coronavirus cases, without saying where.

Most of the recent new infections have been in Yangon. Myanmar has so far reported a total 5,541 Covid-19 cases and 92 deaths.

Infections have increased to hundreds of new cases per day over the past weeks after the coronavirus resurfaced in the western state of Rakhine, following weeks without a confirmed domestic case.

Domestic airlines announced that services have been suspended until the end of September.