Myanmar rebels lock down town on China border amid Covid surge

This article is more than 12 months old

Nov 12, 2021 06:00 am

YANGON: A Myanmar ethnic rebel group has locked down a town on the porous China border following a Covid-19 spike, it said yesterday, as Beijing battles a Delta-driven outbreak that has spread across the country.

Almost 2,000 cases had been detected in the town of Laiza, said a spokesman for the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), a rebel group that controls swathes of territory bordering China's Yunnan province.

The KIA has imposed a lockdown on the remote town of about 20,000 people since Nov 2 to contain the outbreak, Colonel Hein Wawm told AFP.

People are not allowed to enter or leave the town and residents have been ordered to stay home unless buying food.

Most of the cases were detected in a school, the spokesman said, adding that the group was working to arrange supplies of food to the town.

Daily infections in the South-east Asian country of 54 million are falling, according to figures published by state media, which reported 1,180 new cases and 14 deaths on Wednesday. - AFP