Myanmar protesters return to the streets

PROTESTERS opposing the military takeover of Myanmar returned to the streets in large numbers yesterday.

Thousands of people rallied in Yangon, the nation’s biggest city, blocking roads with vehicles to stop security forces from moving around the commercial capital.

Calls for a “brokendown car campaign” spread quickly on social media after the military resumed internet services. Numerous photos soon appeared on social media sites of supposedly stalled cars, with hoods raised, clogging up streets.

Protestors parked their cars in the middle of city streets and on bridges yesterday, pretending they had broken down to prevent police and army trucks from reaching the protest sites.

In the second largest city of Mandalay, protesters milled onto railway track to block trains departing from Mandalay Central Railway Station.

Myanmar’s military has promised it will hold an election and hand over power to the political party, winning a majority of votes. However, the military has not announced any date for conducting a fresh election.

THE last round of nucleic acid tests was completed for quarantined residents in the Xingaoyuan Phase I residential compound yesterday, the last day of the Spring Festival holiday.

The neighborhood in the Pudong New Area was listed as a medium-risk area on February 5 after a resident was diagnosed with COVID-19.

On February 4, a group of 100 medical workers from Shanghai Seventh People’s Hospital went to the complex to collect samples from around 3,500 people.

Many medical workers offered to take the samples in the quarantined building, which is more dangerous than out in the open. Some workers shouted themselves hoarse to keep order and avoid crowds gathering, said Xue Wen, a head nurse of the hospital.

Yang Jinju, a 24-year-old nurse, said: “Decorations for celebrating the festival could be seen in the area and medical workers and residents said ‘Happy Lunar Year’ to each other.”

“It makes me homesick,” he said. “Because of the pandemic, I didn't go home for my family reunion during the seven-day holiday.”

Yang was the youngest from the hospital to have supported Leishenshan Hospital, a makeshift hospital in Wuhan when it was the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in China last year.

After three rounds of tests for COVID19, the neighborhood is expected to be opened tomorrow if no new cases are found, hospital officials said.

An artist performs at the Qingzhou ancient town scenic area in east China’s Shandong Province on Tuesday. The day was the fifth day of the first lunar month, with the custom of welcoming Caishen, or the God of Wealth, in Chinese folk. Folk activities were held all around the country to pray and celebrate the New Year. — Xinhua

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