SINGAPORE: Six “party buses” have been impounded over the last two months during several operations against “irresponsible service providers”, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Thursday (Sep 10).

LTA said it received feedback that some party buses began offering services at nightlife areas such as Boat Quay and Clarke Quay when Phase 2 of Singapore’s reopening started.

“Party buses are often heavily modified and they typically cater to groups of party-goers,” said LTA in a Facebook post.

“Besides potentially thwarting Singapore’s efforts to limit COVID-19 transmission during this crucial period, some modifications also threaten passenger’s safety.”

Some of the vehicles feature modified seats without proper safety restraints, said LTA, adding that passengers could be “flung forward during sudden braking”.

READ: First-time F&B offenders will now face enforcement action for flouting COVID-19 safe management measures: Lawrence Wong

​​​​​​​

Besides the “illegal modifications”, LTA officers also found other offences such as driving without a valid bus driver’s vocational licence, insurance coverage and road tax.

“Investigations into these offences are ongoing,” said the authority.

“We would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone to be responsible and continue to abide by safe management measures.”

Under Phase 2 of Singapore’s reopening after the COVID-19 “circuit breaker”, most businesses have resumed operations, but some entertainment venues like nightclubs and karaoke outlets are not allowed to reopen.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram

Myanmar police moved decisively on Saturday in a bid to prevent opponents of military rule gathering throughout the country after Myanmar’s UN envoy urged the United Nations to use “any means necessary” to stop a February 1 coup.

The Southeast Asian country has been in turmoil since the Army seized power and detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and much of her party leadership, alleging fraud in a November election that her party had won in a landslide.

The coup has brought hundreds of thousands of protesters to Myanmar’s streets and drawn condemnation from Western countries,with some imposing limited sanctions.

Myanmar police arrested hundreds of protesters on Saturday in their most extensive crackdown on demonstrations against the military coup, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) rights group said.

“We can definitely say hundreds,” AAPP representative Aung Myo Kyaw told Reuters.

“More than 10 prison buses went into Insein prison with about 40 to 50 people in a prison bus. They arrested many people in Monywa too. We are now trying to get the names of the people.”

Uncertainty has grown over Ms. Suu Kyi’s whereabouts, as the independent Myanmar Now website on Friday quoted officials of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party as saying she had been moved this week from house arrest to an undisclosed location.

Police were out in force early in the main city of Yangon and elsewhere, deployed at usual protest sites and detaining people as they congregated, witnesses said. Several media workers were also detained.

Similar scenes played out in the second city of Mandalay,and several other towns, including Dawei in the south, witnesses and media reported.

A protester in the central town of Monwya said police had fired water cannon as they surrounded a crowd.

Appeal at UN

At the UN General Assembly, Myanmar’s Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun said he was speaking on behalf of Ms. Suu Kyi’s government and appealed to the body “to use any means necessary to take action against the Myanmar military and to provide safety and securityf or the people”.

“We need further strongest possible action from the international community to immediately end the military coup, to stop oppressing the innocent people… and to restore the democracy,” he told the 193-member group, receiving applause as he finished.

Meanwhile, state television reported that Mr. Kyaw Moe Tun has been fired.

MRTV said he had “betrayed the country and spoken for an unofficial organisation which doesn’t represent the country and had abused the power and responsibilities of an ambassador”.

LONDON: Britain’s government is urging people to return to their offices and workplaces to help the economy recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, transport minister Grant Shapps said on Friday (Aug 28).

“Our central message is pretty straightforward: We are saying to people it is now safe to return to work,” he told LBC radio.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will launch a campaign extolling the virtues of returning to the office while a new online tool will help people avoid the most crowded trains and buses, a report in The Telegraph newspaper said.

READ: New reckoning for WHO COVID-19 vaccine plan as governments do it alone

According to the Centre for Cities think tank, only 17 per cent of workers in British cities had returned to their workplaces by early August.

Last month Johnson encouraged people working from home to get back to their workplaces to help the economy recover from its 20 per cent contraction in the April-June period, the largest fall among big developed economies.

READ: Britain will act quickly on quarantine if needed, says PM Boris Johnson’s spokesman

Businesses suffering from reduced numbers of people in city centres range from sandwich shops such as the Pret a Manger chain – which is cutting more than a third of its workforce – to landlords worried about lower demand for office space.

The Confederation of British Industry’s director-general, Carolyn Fairbairn, said on Thursday that some city centres resembled ghost towns, and backed calls for people to return to offices.

READ: UK government health advisers say missing school is greater risk to kids than COVID-19

But many other business leaders and economists think the move is premature, and that it would be counterproductive to resist much of the shift towards working from home.

“I think it is looking at things through the wrong end of the telescope,” said Andrew Sentance, a former Bank of England policymaker who now advises consultancy Cambridge Econometrics.

“We should be thinking about the type of economy that will emerge from this big shock, and trying to allow firms to adapt.”

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram

Despite the devastation that has struck this tiny mountain nation, Dr Vani Kori — who volunteered her service in Nepal for 10 days — believes it will soon rebuild itself.

On April 25, 2015, a massive earthquake devastated Nepal, leaving more than 8,000 dead and injuring many more. Relief poured in from all parts of the world, as did rescue workers.

India was among the first nations to react to the crisis.

A team of 10 doctors from Karnataka went to Nepal to help with the relief efforts. Dr Vani Kori, an obstetrician-gynaecologist from Shivamogga, was part of the team.

Dr Kori, who is also the vice-president of the Indian Medical Association in Karnataka, describes how the team was able to assist the quake-ravaged nation.

I am satisfied that I could help the victims in Nepal.

The Karnataka health ministry wanted to help and asked the IMA to send four volunteers to Nepal on Sunday, April 26.

I had come from Shivamogga to Bengaluru for a meeting. I asked my daughter to send me some clothes and bought the rest of what I needed in Bengaluru.

We collected medicines and medical equipment. On Monday, April 27, we met Karnataka Health Minister U T Khader at 5 am. He told us, “Help as much as you can.”

The government gave us 1,200 kilos of medicines.

At 7 am, we boarded a flight to Delhi. We reached at 10.30 am. The flight to Kathmandu — on Jet Airways — was scheduled to take off at 1.50 pm. There were many Nepalese at the airport, waiting to go home.

Our flight was delayed. We finally boarded at 5 pm. My brother-in-law called to warn me that NASA said there would be another earthquake.

The flight finally took off at 7 pm.

At 8.30 pm, there were more tremors. We were above Kathmandu, but were not allowed to land. Our flight was diverted to Lucknow, where we landed at 10.30 pm.

At 11.30 pm, we took off again for Kathmandu. Again, we were not allowed to land due to lack of parking space. There were many military aircraft at the airport. We returned to Delhi. It was 4 am.

We were told we could go to Karnataka Bhavan in Delhi, but we stayed at the airport as we had our boarding passes. Our flight, now scheduled to leave at 1.50 pm, was delayed again. We finally reached Kathmandu at 7.30 pm on Tuesday, April 28.

The Tribhuvan international airport was crowded and chaotic. People were looking for their baggage and for other people. We were told our baggage would reach the next day.

We took a cab from the airport to Kamalpokhra, where our stay had been arranged by the Indian government. It was just 15 minutes away. The hotel gave us food.

The next morning, we went to the Indian embassy and met Ambassador Ranjit Rae. The embassy was very crowded. Our people trying to organise help. Thirty doctors from Maharashtra were there with their paramedical team.

Dr Thakur was the man in charge at the embassy. We told him our medicines would arrive by 5 pm.

We then went to the Dharahara Tower area. There is a huge army maidan there where 400, 500 tents had been put up.

We had our stethoscopes and some medical equipment with us so we saw a few patients. Soon, we got a call from the embassy. Our baggage and medicines had arrived. We collected some essential medicines, left the rest at the airport and returned to the Dharahara Tower area.

We picked up the remaining medicines later.

Most of the people we treated had minor injuries. The severely injured had been shifted to hospitals.

Many of the people we saw, particularly small children, were dehydrated. We shifted them to hospitals.

The local volunteers were very helpful, particularly a Mr Anand.

In the night, we returned to our hotel.

There was no connectivity. We had two local SIM cards that sometimes worked. I was trying to contact home when I felt tremors.

We came down as we were on the third floor. Once the tremors stopped, we went to bed.

The first thing we did on Thursday, April 30, was to go to the Indian embassy. They gave us a letter to say we were officially working there. The Nepal government also gave us a letter. The embassy gave us two buses.

We were supposed to go to Gorkha district but the drivers said we could not go there. We went to the University hospital at Kathmandu instead. The situation was very bad. The Red Cross had put up tents as well.

I went to the obstetrics department. There were many patients there. Volunteers were distributing food. We started helping with sutures, dressings, intravenous drips and injections.

It is very bright in Nepal at 5 am; by 5 pm, it starts getting dark. We were at the hospital till 6.30 pm. We did not realise how fast the day had ended. I have no idea how many patients we treated; we never counted.

The next day, our orthopaedicians started doing surgeries; we prepped the patients for them.

The roads, many of which were narrow, were in bad condition; buildings on either side had collapsed. We walked over ruins to reach the people who were staying in crowded tents. Local volunteers carried our medicines for us.

We sat on bricks and treated patients. The people were suffering from blunt trauma. They were scared that there would be more tremors and needed a lot of counselling.

We worked there till 6 pm. It took us three hours to reach our hotel.

At around 3 am, the dogs started barking and the birds started screeching. There was a tremor. Later, we were told it had registered 5.1 on the Richter Scale.

After that, we could not sleep. There were two more tremors at 4 am and 5 am.

On Saturday, we met Mr Rajkumar Sah from the Federation of Nepali Chambers of Commerce and Industry. He has his own Ayurveda hospitals. He took us to Joharmahakal. We travelled for one-and-a-half hours by bus and then walked uphill for 45 minutes to reach this place.

There were hundreds of patients there.

Mr Rajkumar had also brought food and supplies; the people were happier with the food than with the medicines. Our medicines had been carried by volunteers who were always there to help.

We started treating patients.

I examined some pregnant women. They were frightened that their unborn child would be affected by the earthquake. I did my best to reassure them.

We were there the whole day.

Our driver said we must return before dark and so we left at 5.30 pm.

On the way back, we saw a camp and stopped. There were heaps of dead bodies being cremated and the volunteers wanted face masks. We gave them enough masks.

It was disheartening to see so many bodies.

It was 9 pm by the time we reached our hotel.

At 8 am the next day, we left for Ramkot, which was 25 kilometres away. It took us three-and-a-half hours to reach there. Mr Sah took us to a school where a medical camp had been organised. We worked the whole day along with the local doctors.

At 4 pm we visited the Jwalamukhi temple.

Locals said there was an old lady who was sick. Her home was at the top of a hill. Two of our doctors went up to help her; they treated other patients there as well.

We were told there were enough doctors available locally to treat more patients so we returned to our hotel by 9 pm.

I was to return on Monday, May 4.

It was not easy to get a ticket. Our health minister’s office got me a ticket to fly out at 10 am by an Air India flight.

At 7 am, there was another tremor. The locals told us it was the 154th tremor since the earthquake.

After landing in Delhi, I took a flight to Bengaluru from where I boarded a bus to Shivamogga. I reached home at 1.30 am.

The Nepalese are a courageous people. They said they will build a new Nepal.

Dr Vani Kori spoke to A Ganesh Nadar/ Rediff.com

NEW YORK: New York City’s public school system, the country’s largest, reached an agreement on Tuesday (Sep 1) that resolves union leaders’ coronavirus safety concerns and pushes back the opening of classrooms for the new academic year by 11 days to Sept. 21.

The agreement, which comes as school systems across the country wrestle with the pandemic and pressure from the Trump administration to reopen school buildings, would maintain the city’s plan for a mix of in-class and remote learning.

“What we’ve agreed to is to make sure that the health measures are in place, to make sure there is time for the appropriate preparation for our educators,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a briefing.

In Los Angeles and Chicago, the country’s second and third largest school systems, students are beginning the academic year solely with online instruction.

Daily US coronavirus infections have been declining, with 36,263 on Monday, less than half the peak reported in mid-July, according to a Reuters tally.

But there are still hotspots in the Midwest, led by Iowa and South Dakota, where new cases spiked last week. US cases since the pandemic started early this year topped 6 million on Sunday, nearly one-quarter of the world’s total.

The disease has killed more than 184,000 people in the United States, over one-fifth of the world’s total.

New York unions, led by the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), had expressed concern that the city was rushing into its Sept. 10 scheduled start of the school year without taking adequate steps to protect teachers, students and staff from infections.

WORST OF BOTH SCENARIOS

UFT President Michael Mulgrew last month threatened a strike – illegal under state law – unless schools implemented a rigorous COVID-19 testing plan and other safety measures.

On Tuesday, Mulgrew and union leaders who represent principals, administrators and other school staff joined de Blasio in hailing the new agreement.

“Our medical experts have stamped this plan, and we now can say that the New York City public school system has the most aggressive policies and greatest safeguards of any school system in America,” said Mulgrew, whose union represents 133,000 teachers and other education workers.

The agreement requires monthly testing of the system’s 1.1 million students as well as teachers and staff, officials said.

Also required are 30-day supplies of masks and other personal protective equipment in every school, social distancing procedures, functioning ventilation systems in buildings and safety measures for busing students, they said.

Remote instruction for students is due to start on Sep 16, even as teachers and staff continue preparing for the Sep 21 opening of the system’s 1,800 school buildings.

Under the “blended learning” plan de Blasio announced in July, students would be split up, with half spending two days at school and half learning at home. For the next three days they would switch locations, and the following week they would reverse the sequence.

The plan was intended to strike a balance between the safety of online learning and mitigated risks of face-to-face instruction, which educators have said is more effective.

Edward Stapleton, a high school English teacher in the city’s Brooklyn borough, expressed concern about the blended learning plan, which he said combines the worst of both scenarios.

“We still have all the disadvantages of online learning, we still have to do that at the same time as we’re teaching, and they’re still bringing students into school,” Stapleton, 39, said in an interview.

New York, the early US epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, has cut its infection rate to among the lowest in the country. Daily testing in New York City has yielded positive results of less then 2 per cent and sometimes less than 1 per cent for several weeks.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram