The Chinese city where the coronavirus epidemic first broke out, Wuhan, ends a two-month lockdown, but a northern town started restricting the movement of its residents amid concerns of a second wave of infections in mainland China.

The World Health Organization emphasises on a stronger effort from society and governments in South-East Asia to prevent a long-haul struggle with the coronavirus pandemic and avert further loss of human life and other resources.

The top official in China’s coronavirus epicentre of Wuhan warned residents to stay vigilant and avoid going out, even as the latest data showed a decline in new cases in the mainland and no new infections in the central city.

Should more of us wear face masks to help slow the spread of coronavirus?

India will pull out of a three-week lockdown in phases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday, as officials battle to contain the country’s biggest cluster of coronavirus infections in the capital, New Delhi.

Eighteen firefighters and one forestry guide died while fighting a huge forest fire in southwestern China, the local government said yesterday.

A Myanmar journalist faces up to life in prison for publishing an interview with a rebel group operating in the country’s restive Rakhine state a week after the insurgents were classified as a terrorist organisation.

India is still in the local transmission stage of the coronavirus pandemic, the government said yesterday, responding to questions about a health ministry document that said the country was currently in “local transmission and limited community transmission phase.”

Nuclear-armed North Korea successfully tested “super-large multiple rocket launchers”, state media said yesterday, but leader Kim Jong Un was not described as commanding the drill as analysts say Pyongyang seeks to normalise its launches.

Uzbekistan locks down more cities and districts, and announces large bonus payments for medical workers, in its effort to slow the spread of coronavirus, as it reports the country's first death and the number of cases climbed to 83.

Nine doctors have died in the Philippines from the coronavirus, the country’s top medical association said yesterday, as hospitals were overwhelmed and medics complained about a lack of protection on the front lines.

Malawian Vice President Saulos Chilima has filed a lawsuit against President Peter Mutharika after he refused to fire the electoral commissioners who oversaw last year’s failed election, his lawyer said yesterday.

Sri Lanka’s president yesterday pardoned and released an army officer on death row for slitting the throats of Tamil civilians, including four children, during the island’s bloody civil war.

India yesterday announced a 1.7-trillion-rupee ($22.6-billion) economic stimulus plan providing direct cash transfers and food security measures to give relief to millions of poor people hit by a nationwide lockdown over a coronavirus pandemic.

The Thai government banned entry for all non-resident foreigners yesterday but held off on restricting people’s movement inside the country as the government prepared to roll out emergency measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday described doctors and other health staff at the frontlines of the fight against coronavirus as “incarnations of God” and said those harassing them would face police action.

Pakistan has suspended six civil servants after they posed for a selfie with a coronavirus patient in a quarantine centre, an official said yesterday.

‘FRIEND OF CORONAVIRUS’

China’s imported coronavirus cases have risen to a record 228, data showed yesterday, as infected travellers spread to ever more provinces, adding pressure on authorities to toughen entry rules and health protocols.

Malaysia will mobilise the army to help enforce curbs on movement aimed at reining in the coronavirus, the government said yesterday, as it grapples with the highest number of infections in Southeast Asia.