Jailed Myanmar Politician Dies From COVID

Myanmar politician Nyan Win, a senior adviser to ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, died in hospital on Tuesday, after becoming infected with COVID-19 in jail, his party said, as the Southeast Asian country struggles with an exponential rise in infections, Reuters reported.

Nyan Win, 78, who had been held in Yangon's Insein prison after being arrested when the army seized power on Feb. 1, was transferred to hospital last week, the National League for Democracy (NLD) said in a statement. Reuters was unable to reach the health ministry or a junta spokesman for comment.

"We promise to continue fighting for our unfinished tasks, to end the dictatorship in the country and to establish a Federal Democratic Union," the NLD statement said, offering condolences to the family of a man who had been Suu Kyi's lawyer and party spokesman.

Myanmar's efforts to contain COVID-19 infections have been thrown into chaos by the turmoil since the military seized power from Suu Kyi's elected government. According to the military-controlled health ministry, only about 1.6 million people had been vaccinated out of a population of 54 million, state media reported.

The Global New Light of Myanmar reported about 750,000 Chinese vaccine doses would arrive on Thursday and more are expected over the following days, as the ministry predicted half of the population would be inoculated this year.

The United Nations said in a report on Monday it was stepping up efforts to combat an "alarming spike" in COVID-19 cases and expected Myanmar to receive enough vaccines via the COVAX facility this year for 20% of the population.

Myanmar registered a record 281 COVID-19 deaths on Monday, and 5,189 new infections, state-run MRTV Television reported, citing health ministry figures.

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