The Ministry of Education (MoE) is gearing up for the opening of the new school term, such as the provision of antigen rapid test (ART) kits and ensuring that all schools have rooms for ART testing and isolation as well as a sick bay. This was said by Acting Minister of Education Datin Seri Paduka Dr Hajah Romaizah binti Haji Mohd Salleh at the daily press conference yesterday. More details in Friday’s Borneo Bulletin.
Japan Maritime Self Defense Force’s (JMSDF) JS Uraga and JS Hirado made a logistic port of call to Brunei Darussalam on December 27. More details in Friday’s Borneo Bulletin.
Cross-border activities are futher suspended until January 15, 2022 announced the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) yesterday. More details in Friday’s Borneo Bulletin.
The Magistrate’s Court yesterday handed a four years’ jail sentence to a local man for auto thefts after considering a long list of previous convictions along with mischief and drugs offences from 2007 to 2018. More details in Friday’s Borneo Bulletin.
PARIS (AFP) – A COVID variant-driven “tsunami” threatens to overwhelm healthcare systems, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday as AFP data showed cases have surged across the world in the past week to levels never seen before. More details in Friday’s Borneo Bulletin.
NEW DELHI (AFP) – The Indian government extended yesterday a special law giving armed forces sweeping powers in the north-eastern state of Nagaland, days after a botched army ambush killed 14 people. More details in Friday’s Borneo Bulletin.
LONDON (AP) – England’s National Health Service (NHS) is building temporary structures at hospitals around the country to prepare for a possible surge of COVID-19 patients as the highly transmissible Omicron variant fuels a new wave of infections. More details in Friday’s Borneo Bulletin.
TORONTO (AP) – Coronavirus infections set new one-day highs in six Canadian provinces Wednesday, prompting several provinces to impose more restrictions in hopes of containing the spread of the Omicron variant. More details in Friday’s Borneo Bulletin.
Brunei Darussalam adds five new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, including two imported cases, bringing the total number of cases to 15,470, according to the Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Hj Md Isham bin Hj Jaafar at a press conference.
The number of new cases is the result of 2,681 laboratory tests conducted in the past 24 hours. Therefore, the rate of positive case is 0.2%.
Among the cases being treated at the National Isolation Centre, there is no case is in Category 4 (requiring oxygen assistance and under close monitoring) and one case is still in Category 5 (requiring assistance of artificial ventilation and an additional heart/lung machine, ECMO at the Intensive Care Unit).
7 cases have recovered on Thursday, bringing the total number of recovered cases in Brunei Darussalam to 15,272 cases and the total active cases are 98 cases.
Meanwhile, the bed occupancy rate in isolation centres nationwide is 2.6%.
As of yesterday, 29 December 2021, the overall rate of the population who have received at least one dose of the vaccine is 94.5%; The rate of those who have received two doses ofthe vaccine is 93.3%; while the rate of those who have received three doses of the vaccine is 19.5%.
More details on Friday’s Borneo Bulletin
Full video of today’s Press Conference can be viewed on our Instagram page.
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel unveiled a package of “confidence-building measures” for the occupied West Bank yesterday, after Defence Minister Benny Gantz hosted talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas (AP pic below) on his first visit in years.
Abbas, leading a high-ranking delegation on his first visit to Israel for an official meeting since 2010, held talks with Gantz at his home in the central town of Rosh HaAyin, according to Israeli sources and media.
“We discussed the implementation of economic and civilian measures, and emphasised the importance of deepening security coordination and preventing terror and violence – for the well-being of both Israelis and Palestinians,” Gantz said after the meeting on Tuesday evening.
Yesterday, Israel’s Defence Ministry announced “confidence-building measures” with the Palestinian Authority (PA).
These included a USD32 million advance payment to the PA in taxes collected on its behalf by Israel, and the granting of 600 extra permits allowing Palestinian businessmen to cross into Israel.
It also announced the regularisation of 6,000 more Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank, which has been under Israeli control since the Six-Day War of 1967.
Israel had already announced in October – for the first time since 2009 – the regularisation of the status of 4,000 Palestinians living in the large swathe of the West Bank known as Area C, where Israel exercises civilian as well as military control.
Palestinian Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh welcomed the meeting with Gantz, saying it had been a “serious and courageous effort” towards a “political” solution.
“The meeting dealt with the importance of creating a political horizon that leads to a political solution, in accordance with international resolutions,” Sheikh said.
After Israel’s coalition government led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was formed in June, Gantz had visited the PA’s headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah in August for talks with Abbas.
