Myanmar has banned domestic flights in and out of Yangon, its largest city, after reintroducing lockdowns due to a sharp rise in COVID-19 infections.
The country’s Department of Civil Aviation ordered the ban until Oct. 1, a statement from Yangon International Airport said on Friday.
While other countries have begun to relax restrictions on air travel, Myanmar has maintained its ban on all international commercial flights.
Until late August, Myanmar was among the few countries to have avoided a large outbreak of the virus, registering just a few hundred cases and a handful of deaths in total since March.
On Friday, health authorities recorded 115 new cases, bringing the total to 2,265 with 14 deaths.
In a video address about the increasing restrictions published on Facebook on Thursday, Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi said: “We know how many people are affected by these decisions.
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“But if we don’t do it, they and their families could get infected.”
The latest outbreak began in Rakhine state before spreading to Yangon. A state-wide lockdown order and nighttime curfew was announced in Rakhine on Aug. 21.
dpa/NAN
