Beaches, bars, and restaurants are the latest closures in Myanmar’s bid to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Mandalay’s regional government ordered tea shops, bars and restaurants to operate on a take-away only basis; a similar instruction has not been made in Yangon.
Meanwhile, the Ayeyarwady regional government has closed off popular beaches Chaung Tha, Ngwe Saung, and Gaw Yin Gyi Island, among others in the area until the end of next month.
The order relates to both local and foreign visitors, the latest hit to Myanmar’s beleaguered tourism industry. As in other countries, restrictions on domestic travel are being used as a tool to halt the outbreak.
This week Myanmar announced its first coronavirus cases: a 36-year-old Myanmar man travelling back from the United States and a 26-year-old Myanmar man returning from Britain.
The 36-year-old man developed a fever a week after arriving from the US on March 13, said the announcement.
He reportedly boarded a plane from Yangon to Kale, a Sagaing town near the Chin state border, and travelled to the northern Chin town of Tedim.
He is currently under isolation at Tedim General Hospital.
Keptel village, where he stayed, has been put under lockdown and travel restrictions are planned for the road between Tedim and Kale.
The announcement caused residents to leave Keptel and Kale, reported The Irrawaddy.
The 26-year-old man arrived in Yangon from the UK on March 22 and was quarantined in Hlegu township before being moved to Hmawbi township where a meditation centre, the Dhammaduta Jetavana Monastery, has been converted into a quarantine site.
The patient has been moved to an isolation ward in Yangon’s Waibargi Hospital.
In a televised address on Tuesday, Aung San Suu Kyi assured the public there would be no food shortage in the country and told people not to panic buy at supermarkets.
