The return of the "common viruses"

Children's viruses that disappeared during pandemic lockdowns are back, doctors say | CBC News:

July 16, 2021 - "Doctors are warning about a resurgence of common viruses such as colds and influenza that weren’t spreading as much because of the precautions and restrictions for COVID-19. But as people interact more they’re likely to spread and could hit children especially hard. As children emerge from their homes after COVID-19-related lockdowns, common viruses that all but disappeared during the pandemic are re-emerging too, doctors say.

"'This time of year in pediatric hospitals, it's usually quiet,' said Dr. Fatima Kakkar, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at CHU Sainte-Justine in Montreal. 'But now we're seeing a surge of respiratory infections.' The level of non-COVID illnesses is what Kakkar usually sees in the fall, she said, when children are out and about in daycares or schools.

"While the public health measures taken in the last year — including physical distancing, masking and staying home — were used to stop the spread of COVID-19, they also had the side benefit of preventing other respiratory viruses, including colds, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human parainfluenza virus, which causes croup. But experts say that also means because children haven't come in contact with those viruses for a long time, they haven't built up the antibodies they normally would — and they won't have the immunity they might otherwise have.

"'What's happened to us is we … had no exposure," said Dr. Allison McGeer, an infectious diseases specialist and microbiologist at Sinai Health in Toronto. 'Now that we're getting back to normal and kids can see each other, we're starting to see those infections [again] in children.'

"Kids will usually recover from most of these illnesses on their own, but Kakkar said pediatricians are especially worried about a rise in RSV. Although it's a common virus, it can cause breathing problems in infants and toddlers that are so severe they require hospital care, she said.

"Last month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health advisory notifying health-care providers that RSV cases were on the rise in parts of the country, and asking them to test children with acute respiratory symptoms for RSV if COVID-19 was ruled out. According to the CDC, RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children under one.

"One respiratory virus that doctors aren't seeing yet is the flu, Kakkar said. But after a year with essentially no flu season, largely due to COVID-19 precautions, influenza is expected to return this fall. Even though our immune systems may not be ready for the flu this year, there's good news.... '[F]or the flu, we have a safe and effective vaccine,' said Dr. Ellen Foxman, an immunologist at the Yale School of Medicine.... Plus, she said, parents can use several of the same precautions they've [used] during the COVID-19 pandemic to help prevent the spread of re-emerging childhood viruses.

"'Wash your hands,' McGeer said. 'We know that simple things reduce your risk of respiratory viral infections. [There's] good evidence that washing your hands five times a day reduces the risk by about 30 per cent, give or take.' Staying home when you're sick and keeping your child at home if they have symptoms is also a behaviour ... that needs to continue, Kakkar said. Plus, parents should be prepared now to deal with viruses they wouldn't normally expect until the fall."

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/kids-viruses-returning-after-covid-19-lockdown-1.6104389

Vaccine pass protests continue in Europe

France, Italy see mass protests against COVID health pass - Deutsche Welle [stress added]:

August 8, 2020 -"Protesters took to the streets in France and Italy on Saturday in opposition to COVID rules that they say infringe on their civil liberties but which officials argue are needed to curb the coronavirus pandemic.... Demonstrations against France's health pass and mandatory vaccines for health care workers entered their fourth weekend, with Saturday seeing the largest rally yet. An estimated 237,000 people turned out nationwide, according to the Interior Ministry. The figure exceeds the attendance a week ago [of] 204,000 protesters.

"While 17,000 people turned out in Paris, much of the focus was in southern France — where between 10,000 and 20,000 people marched in Nice alone. In contrast to prior weekends, the demonstrations were largely peaceful. The more major scuffles broke out between protesters and police in Lyon, France's third-largest city. The city of Bayonne and other areas of southern France saw larger numbers of protesters... "The protests come on the heels of a Constructional Council ruling on Thursday [that] approved the government's plan for the health pass and vaccine requirements for workers in hospitals in nursing homes....

"Italy also saw thousands turn out against the implementation of the country's Green Pass, which is now required for teachers and for people to attend indoor events. News agency ANSA reported that 'thousands' marched in the city of Milan at an unauthorized protest.... Another 1,500 people gathered in Rome, posters reading: 'No Green Pass!' while in Naples, around 100 anti-vax protesters demonstrated against vaccinations for children....

"The health pass in France and the Green Pass in Italy are both digital certificates that provide proof of a person's coronavirus status.... The pass is already required in France for those who want to go to the movie theater or attend other major events. Starting on Monday, it will also be required for those who want to visit bars and restaurants, or for those traveling on long-distance trains or on airplanes. In Italy, the Green Pass is required to enter museums, sports venues, cinemas and for indoor dining. School teachers, university staff and university students are also required to show the pass."

Read more: https://www.dw.com/en/france-italy-see-mass-protests-against-covid-health-pass/a-58794976

Snowjobbers try to rewrite history (2)

How the lockdown lobby rewrote history | spiked - Phillip W. Magness:

April 7, 2021 - "A bizarre Covid-19 conspiracy theory appears to have taken root among the epidemiologists and public-health officials who still support lockdowns... [that] Great Barrington Declaration co-author Sunetra Gupta, her Oxford colleague Carl Heneghan, and Sweden’s state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell ... convinced UK prime minister Boris Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak to abandon a so-called ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown during an audience in late September. Had the UK gone back into lockdown around the beginning of October instead of a month later – proponents of this theory maintain – it would have avoided its disastrous second wave over the autumn and winter

"Deepti Gurdasani, an epidemiologist at Queen Mary University in London and a principal organiser of the pro-lockdown John Snow Memorandum, has aggressively promoted the [theory].... As early as December, Gurdasani blasted Downing Street for supposedly listening to the ‘dangerous ideology’ of Gupta, Heneghan and Tegnell, which ‘has cost thousands of lives’ and sought to replicate the ‘dangerous’ Swedish strategy.... The same narrative has become a favorite of Devi Sridhar*, an anthropologist and Snow Memorandum co-signer who frequently appears in the UK media.... Attempting to explain why her own lockdown approach did not work, Sridhar wrote on 5 January that ‘chancellor Sunak invited Heneghan, Gupta and Tegnell to advise on strategy. That says it all’....

"Gurdasani, Sridhar and other lockdown advocates of the John Snow Memorandum crowd want you to believe that they were patiently counselling the government to adopt an early lockdown between the end of September and mid-October, only to see their advice deflected by Downing Street due to the interference of Gupta and the other dissenting scientists. The record reveals a very different story....

"Indeed, what we see when we look at the words of these lockdowner scientists and pundits is nothing short of a conscious attempt to rewrite their own positions from the period when the conspiracy theory that they’ve now adopted was allegedly playing out. As I documented last autumn, the overwhelming media narrative from late September and early October explicitly deflected attention away from the prospect of a second lockdown. Scientists such as Gupta, Heneghan and the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD) signers, they vigorously maintained, were arguing with a ‘strawman’ of renewed lockdowns that nobody was seriously proposing or considering anymore....

"On 11 October, Guardian columnist Sonia Sodha wrote, ‘The [Great Barrington] declaration sets itself up against a straw proposal that nobody is arguing for – a full-scale national lockdown until a vaccine is made available’. By 30 October, Sodha was already contradicting herself and revising her own history, tweeting, ‘Wish we’d had a circuit breaker lockdown when SAGE first recommended it’. By mid-December, she was touting the conspiracy theory about Gupta, Heneghan and Tegnell’s Zoom meeting with Downing Street. More recently, she has become an advocate of de-platforming the same scientists from British media channels for their anti-lockdown heresies.

"Sridhar’s own navigation of the lockdown question followed a similar course. Although she now chastises opponents of the ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown proposal from the events of 20-21 September, and faults them for Britain’s second wave, Sridhar wrote a bizarre op-ed in the Guardian on 10 October, purporting to oppose ‘continual lockdowns’.... Sridhar would doubtless insist that her own re-adoption of lockdown advocacy about a month later arose from a failure to heed her earlier advice.... Even then, it’s difficult to square her mid-October position with her newfound claim to have recognised the wisdom of a national lockdown some two to three weeks earlier than the 10 October op-ed....

"The most astounding attempt at revisionism, however, came from Gurdasani – the Snow Memorandum organiser, who has since tried to blame the UK’s Covid failures on Gupta, Heneghan and Tegnell over the September Zoom conference. She now depicts herself as an early lockdown advocate whose advice from September was shoved aside and ignored. Yet as late as 26 October, Gurdasani was still pushing the same ‘lockdowns are a strawman’ line that had dominated the previous month of UK media coverage. Writing for the Byline Times, a London-based blog that has pushed multiple unhinged conspiracy theories of its own about the Great Barrington Declaration, Gurdasani described lockdowns as ‘a strawman that the science is not only not advocating for, but very keen to avoid’.... As Gurdasani and another Snow Memorandum signer told the Byline Times’ readership, ‘Unfortunately, the proponents of herd immunity have had a huge impact on responses to the pandemic, effectively creating the lockdown strawman’, and insisting that this presented a ‘dangerous false dichotomy’.

"With Gurdasani stressing that she was keen to avoid future lockdowns – a ‘strawman’, in her own words – as late as 26 October, one begins to wonder how she could have supported the very same ‘strawman’ over a month earlier on 20 September, the date on which the dissenting scientists allegedly wrested control of the UK’s pandemic response. Perhaps the lockdowners’ latest conspiracy theory has another, as of yet undisclosed twist to it – this one involving a time machine.

Read more: https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/04/07/how-the-lockdown-lobby-rewrote-history/

See also: Snowjobbers try to rewrite history (1)

Snowjobbers try to rewrite history (1)

The Lockdowners Have Their Own Conspiracy Theories | American Institute of Economic Research - Phillip W. Magness:

April 2, 2021 - "A bizarre Covid-19 conspiracy theory appears to have taken root among the epidemiologists and public health officials who still support lockdowns.... [that] the UK government’s pandemic response was secretly captured at some point in the fall of 2020 by lockdown critics including Great Barrington Declaration [GBD] co-author Sunetra Gupta, her Oxford colleague Carl Heneghan, and Sweden’s state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell.... [They] allege that Gupta and her colleagues convinced UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak to abandon a so-called 'circuit breaker' lockdown during an audience in late September. Had the UK gone back into lockdown around the beginning of October instead of a month later – proponents of this theory maintain – it would have avoided its disastrous second wave over the fall and winter months.

"Even the basic narrative flies in the face of empirical reality. In November 2020 and again in January 2021, the UK went through two successive rounds of draconian lockdowns of the exact type that Gupta and her colleagues advised against. Championed by Johnson as a way to avert the second wave, these policies utterly failed at their stated purpose.... Equally telling, the timing of the UK’s fall/winter wave almost perfectly matched that of Sweden, which remained open throughout the same period – except the UK’s results under lockdowns were visibly worse.... Still, proponents of the newest UK conspiracy theory hold that something very different would have happened if only Johnson had enacted an earlier lockdown....  

"Deepti Gurdasani, an epidemiologist at Queen Mary University in London and a principal organizer of the pro-lockdown John Snow Memorandum, has aggressively promoted the alleged wresting of pandemic policy away from the lockdowners as an explanation for why the UK’s second and third lockdowns failed. As early as December, Gurdasani blasted Downing Street for supposedly listening to the 'dangerous ideology' of Gupta, Heneghan, and Tegnell, which 'has cost thousands of lives' and sought to replicate the 'dangerous' Swedish strategy. Never mind that Sweden, without lockdowns, has a much lower deaths-per-million residents total.... 

"The same narrative has become a favorite of Devi Sridhar, an anthropologist and Snow Memorandum co-signer who frequently appears in the UK media to advocate the fringe 'Zero Covid' strategy (the same one that claims we need more lockdowns to prevent future lockdowns, apparently unaware of the contradiction that entails). Attempting to explain why her own lockdown approach did not work, Sridhar wrote on January 5th that 'Chancellor Sunak invited Heneghan, Gupta & Tegnell to advise on strategy. That says it all'.... 

"Guardian columnist Owen Jones repeated it in a December column targeting Sunak and the scientists for allegedly delaying the lockdowns until it was 'too late to bring coronavirus rates down to anywhere near the level needed to suppress the virus'. A little over a month later, Sam Bowman, a right-leaning self-described 'neoliberal,' penned an almost identical argument to Jones in the same newspaper, writing 'Sunak was reported as having been the decisive voice in government against an autumn lockdown that might have brought cases low enough to make things like test-and-trace viable,' all because of “Sunetra Gupta, Carl Heneghan and Anders Tegnell being invited to speak via Zoom at Downing Street'....

"Gupta, Heneghan, and Tegnell did meet with Downing Street via Zoom on September 20th to voice their opposition to lockdowns in general – a position they have consistently held throughout the pandemic. Unfortunately, as Gupta has explained and as the next four months repeatedly demonstrated, the Prime Minister largely ignored their advice.

"The conspiracists’ alleged 'smoking gun' is a series of minutes from the UK government’s SAGE advisory committee on September 21st, which included a 'circuit-breaker lockdown' among a 'short-list' of policies 'that should be considered' in response to rising Covid-19 cases. Apparently in their minds, being 'considered' equates to adoption, and the fact that Johnson did not lock down the very next day is proof that the dissenting scientists had wrested the reins of the UK’s pandemic policy from those who advocated lockdowns, delaying the necessary response until November 5th after which it was too late....

"Wales tried a 'circuit breaker' lockdown that almost exactly followed the proposal being considered by the SAGE committee, announcing it on October 19.... Wales’s per capita case numbers followed the same trajectory as the rest of the country, including the sharp spike in late December and early January.... Wales’s 'circuit breaker' lockdown only slightly shifted the timing.... Its maximum daily peak of 87 cases per 100,000 residents nearly matched England’s peak of 96, and its curve for Covid-19 fatalities followed the same pattern as the rest of Britain."

Read more: https://www.aier.org/article/the-lockdowners-have-their-own-conspiracy-theories/

Also read: Snowjobbers try to rewrite history (2)

MIllions in China locked down again

Millions are again under lockdown in China because of the delta variant | Quartz - Jane Li:

August 4, 2021 - "Since March last year, China’s new Covid-19 infections have remained low after the government controlled the pandemic by sealing the country’s borders and imposed strict lockdowns. But in recent months, the country began to see small-scale outbreaks driven by the delta variant. In May, the southern city of Guangzhou saw China’s first Covid-19 outbreak caused by that variant.... 

"While most recent outbreaks were quickly confined to the region where they started, that has not been the case with the new outbreak that originated last month in Nanjing in eastern China. Though the numbers of new infections are low, state-run media have called the outbreak China’s most serious since the early days of the pandemic because of the number of provinces affected. China reported 328 local cases in July, nearly equal to the number of cases reported in the previous five months, and cases have been confirmed in at least two dozen cities.

"The new wave has prompted local authorities to fall back on last year’s tools for containing the pandemic. Some cities have urged or required millions of residents to stay at home, banned private cars from roads, and restricted intercity travel. Others have assigned workers to monitor residential buildings, and even offered cash bonuses to report people who have traveled to high-risk areas of the country....

"While authorities in China have fallen back on lockdowns, or partial lockdowns, they aren’t exactly calling them that. Yangzhou, a city of 4.5 million residents located near Nanjing, announced Tuesday (Aug. 3) that it had adopted 'closed-off management' at all residential compounds, with the term referring to partial lockdown measures.... Zhuzhou in Hunan province asked its around 4 million citizens to 'rest for three days' at home starting Aug. 2 and not leave the city unless they can provide negative Covid-19 testing results. Zhangjiajie meanwhile last week ordered all of its 1.5 million residents not to leave their residential compounds unless absolutely necessary, and asked government workers to work from home. Yesterday, it banned everyone currently in the city from leaving. Some local health and tourism officials have lost their jobs or faced other penalties over the flare-up....

"The efforts suggest that China intends to continue with its policy of zero tolerance for new local cases. But how much longer can it keep doing so?"
Read more: https://qz.com/2041656/millions-in-china-return-to-lockdown-because-of-the-delta-variant/

Delta variant challenges China’s costly lockdown strategy | AP News - Joe McDonald & Huizhong Wu:

August 5, 2021 - ""Xi Jinping’s government is fighting the most serious outbreak since last year’s peak in Wuhan. The ruling Communist Party is reviving tactics that shut down China: Access to a city of 1.5 million people has been cut off, flights canceled and mass testing ordered in some areas. That 'zero tolerance' strategy of quarantining every case and trying to block new infections from abroad helped to contain last year’s outbreak and has kept China largely virus-free. But its impact on work and life for millions of people is prompting warnings that China needs to learn to control the virus without repeatedly shutting down the economy and society.

"Zhang Wenhong, a Shanghai doctor who became prominent during the Wuhan outbreak, suggested in a social media post that China’s strategy could change.... 'The world needs to learn how to coexist with this virus,' wrote Zhang, who has 3 million followers on the widely used Sina Weibo platform....

"Last year, China shut down much of the world’s second-biggest economy and cut off almost all access to cities with a total of 60 million people — tactics imitated on a smaller scale by governments from Asia to the Americas. That caused China’s most painful economic contraction in five decades, but Beijing was able to allow business and domestic travel to resume in March 2020....

"China needs to shift to creating barriers to infection within communities by stepping up vaccinations and quickly treating infected people while allowing business and travel to go ahead, said Xi Chen, a health economist at the Yale School of Public Health.... 'I don’t think "zero tolerance" can be sustained,' said Chen. 'Even if you can lock down all the regions in China, people might still die, and more might die due to hunger or loss of jobs.'

"But Beijing has shown no sign of abandoning its tactics. Disease controls must 'be even faster, more firm, stricter, more expansive and ready,' He Qinghua, an official of the National Health Commission’s Disease Control Bureau, said at a news conference Saturday."
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/China-delta-variant-coronavirus-pandemic-lockdown-292b84b26eb41888c579a6460c2647c3

Closing private schools was unconstitutional, U.S. appeals court rules

California’s school closure rules violated private school families’ rights, appeals court rules | Los Angeles Times - Kristen Taketa: 

July 23, 2021 - "An appeals court Friday ruled that state leaders violated the rights of parents by forcing private schools to stay closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.... The appeals court ruling is the latest development in the lawsuit Brach vs. Newsom, which was filed against Gov. Gavin Newsom last July by California public school and private school families.... 

"A national conservative group called the Center for American Liberty led the lawsuit effort. The lawsuit challenged the state’s rules preventing K-12 schools from offering in-person instruction in counties with high coronavirus case rates. The plaintiff families argued that the rules deprived their children of a meaningful education and violated their due process rights and equal protections under the 14th Amendment. While K-12 schools had to remain closed in counties with high coronavirus case rates, other educational facilities could remain open, including child-care programs and K-12 schools in low-COVID counties. The plaintiffs argued that the state’s rules were therefore arbitrary and treated people unequally. In San Diego County, some school districts reopened as early as last fall and remained open throughout the pandemic, while others had to wait until spring to reopen because of state restrictions....

"In December, a district court dismissed all the plaintiffs’ due process claims for public and private school families. The district court said the 14th Amendment’s due process clause does not recognize a fundamental right to basic education, and the plaintiffs had failed to explain how distance learning constituted a wholesale denial of a basic education. The appeals court reversed that lower court’s decision pertaining to private schools and remanded the matter back to the lower court.

"'California’s forced closure of their private schools implicates a right that has long been considered fundamental under the applicable caselaw — the right of parents to control their children’s education and to choose their children’s educational forum,' wrote Judge Daniel Collins in the appeal court’s opinion Friday.... The court also said the state was justified in having different closure rules for public schools, child care centers and other facilities....

"Harmeet Dhillon, chief executive of the Center for American Liberty, called the appeal court ruling 'a huge victory for parents’ rights.' 'The Ninth Circuit rightly ruled in parents’ favor, affirming that they — and not Gavin Newsom or faceless bureaucrats — have the right to decide how best to educate their children,' she said in a statement. But Dhillon said she is disappointed that the appellate court ruled only in favor of private school families, not public school families.

"'While we are thrilled for our clients whose rights are vindicated by today’s decision, we are disappointed the Ninth Circuit did not rule that all students, including those in public school, have a basic right to an education. We will continue to advocate for the educational rights of all students,' Dhillon said."

Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2021-07-23/appeal-court-rules-in-favor-of-private-school-families

Read court decision: https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/07/23/20-56291.pdf

Covid and lockdowns surge in SE Asia

Malaysia Reports Record Daily Coronavirus Cases Amid Lockdown | Bloomberg - Yantoultra Ngui:
July 9, 2021 - "Malaysia on Friday reported the biggest single-day increase in new coronavirus cases since the outbreak began, even as authorities impose tighter movement restrictions in several areas to curb infections. The Southeast Asian nation added a record 9,180 Covid-19 cases, as well as 77 deaths... [On August 3 it added 17,105 cases - gd.] Although an accelerated vaccine roll-out has allowed the government to ease virus curbs in six states, providing some breathing space to the economy, much of the country remains under lockdown since June 1."
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-09/malaysia-reports-record-daily-coronavirus-cases-amid-lockdown

Philippines to Reimpose Lockdown in Capital; Stocks Plunge | Bloomberg - Andreo Calonzo & Ditas B. Lopez:
July 29, 2021 - "The Philippines will place its capital region under a strict lockdown from Aug. 6 to Aug. 20 and implement additional movement restrictions in the interim to stem the spread of the coronavirus’ delta variant.... The Manila capital region, which accounts for about a third of the economy, will shift to the strictest restriction called enhanced community quarantine.... Most businesses will be shut, and only essential shops like supermarkets and pharmacies can fully operate while restaurants will only be open for take out and deliveries.... Only authorized persons will be allowed to go in and out of the capital region and surrounding provinces. Personal care services like beauty salons will be allowed at 30% capacity. Religious events aren’t allowed, except those held virtually."
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-30/philippines-reimposes-lockdown-in-capital-for-2-wks-from-aug-6

Cambodia to impose COVID-19 lockdowns in areas bordering Thailand | Reuters - Prak Chan Thul:
July 29, 2021 - "Cambodia is set to launch a lockdown in eight provinces bordering Thailand from midnight on Thursday, in a bid to prevent the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in the Southeast Asian country. Prime Minister Hun Sen signed an order late on Wednesday for the lockdown, which bans people from leaving their homes, gathering in groups and conducting business, except for those involved in operating airlines. Border checkpoints with Thailand will also be closed except to allow for the transport of goods and in emergencies, Hun Sen said, adding the lockdown was due to run until Aug. 12."
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/cambodia-impose-covid-19-lockdowns-areas-bordering-thailand-2021-07-29/

Vietnam to extend lockdown throughout southern region as COVID cases soar | Reuters:
July 31, 2021 - "Vietnam will from Monday extend strict curbs on movement in its business hub Ho Chi Minh City and another 18 cities and provinces throughout its south for another two weeks to help combat its worst COVID-19 outbreak, the government said.... The Southeast Asian country reported 8,624 new infections late on Saturday, with most of the confirmed cases detected in the south, especially Ho Chi Minh City where social distancing measures have been enforced since May 31.... The central coastal city of Danang also imposed movement curbs from Saturday until further notice. In the capital Hanoi, in the north, where a lockdown order will expire next weekend, authorities were considering extending restrictions."
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/vietnam-extend-lockdown-throughout-southern-region-covid-cases-soar-2021-07-31/

Thailand extends pandemic measures, expands lockdown areas | Reuters - Orathai Sriring & Panarat Thepgumpanat: 
August 1, 2021 - "Thailand on Sunday extended tighter containment measures in the capital and high-risk provinces probably until the end of August in a bid to slow the spread of COVID-19 as the country deals with its biggest outbreak to date.... The restrictions, including travel curbs, mall closures and curfews, will be expanded to 29 provinces classified as 'dark red zone' from 13, Apisamai Srirangsan, spokeswoman for the government's COVID-19 task force, told a televised news briefing. The measures will start on Tuesday for 14 days and will be reviewed on Aug. 18, she said. 'If the situation does not improve and is still worrying, the curbs will be extended to Aug. 31,' she added.... Restaurants in shopping malls will be allowed to open only for deliveries, while construction camps can also resume under 'bubble and seal' measures.... The curbs [have] hit economic activity, and the finance ministry on Thursday slashed its 2021 economic growth forecast to 1.3% from 2.3% seen earlier."
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/thailand-extends-stricter-covid-19-measures-until-end-august-2021-08-01/

Indonesia extends lockdown after Covid-19 cases decrease | Straits Times - Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja:
August 2, 2021 - "Indonesia has extended its partial lockdown for a week, after the month-long restrictions successfully lowered the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Java and Bali.... The ongoing lockdown that began on July 3 covers parts of Java and Bali, and 15 other cities and regencies in places such as Sumatra and Sulawesi. It has led to the suspension of most activities and closure of non-essential public places, including malls, places of worship and parks. Java and Bali now report less than half the number of daily confirmed cases reported in mid-July, health minister Budi Sadikin said in an earlier media briefing on Monday. Mr. Budi conceded however that other regions have begun to see surging infections, but noted that these areas were less densely populated compared with Java and Bali, and similar control measures could be applied there."
Read more: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/indonesia-extends-lockdown-after-covid-19-cases-decrease

COVID-19 lockdown in Laos extended till Aug. 18 | Xinhua:
August 3, 2021 - "The Lao government has decided to extend the current nationwide lockdown to Aug. 18 as ... COVID-19 cases continued to rise. Deputy Head of the Prime Minister's Office, Thipphakone Chanthavongsa, told a press conference in Lao capital Vientiane on Tuesday that the lockdown will be extended as the COVID-19 situation in Laos is not yet fully under control and the situation in neighboring countries remained risky. The current nationwide lockdown, imposed on July 19, was set to expire on Tuesday."
Read more: http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/asiapacific/2021-08/03/c_1310104966.htm