The news that continues to reach us from Myanmar are worrying.

On the one hand, the coronavirus seems to be on the rise. At the beginning of the week, more than 1,200 new infections were registered, compared to less than 200 per day a fortnight ago. Experts consider these figures to be unreliable and assume that the number of unreported cases is high - also because there are now far fewer tests than in January. Back then, there were up to 18,000 tests per day, but in recent months there have been less than 2,000 per day. On Thursday, almost a quarter of all tests carried out were positive. The military government is slowly starting to send regions into lockdown. The best weapon against the virus would be vaccination, but vaccine is scarce.

In addition, further clashes between civilians, armed groups and the military are reported almost daily. In the centre of the country, for example, the village of Depayin was shelled. The aim was to eliminate local anti-junta fighters, but the entire village was shot at. There are many such events in the country, hundreds of thousands of people are already on the run.

The news that about 2,300 political prisoners and journalists have been released from prison sounds somewhat positive. Among them, however, there are no high-ranking NLD politicians. It remains to be seen how the trials will turn out.

More information on the pandemic and the resistance: Zeit online

Article on the struggles: Deutsche Welle

Complete overview of current events: Frontier Fridays