Myanmar Leader Aung San Suu Kyi Cancels His First Campaign Due To Pandemic

President Jokowi meets Aung San Suu Kyi at the 34th Asean Summit in Bangkok in 2019 (Photo: Twitter @jokowi)

JAKARTA - Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is running for election again, canceled his inaugural campaign Monday, September 7 as the COVID-19 outbreak worsened in the country.

Reported by Antara, Tuesday, September 8, Myanmar reported 100 new positive cases of COVID-19, Sunday, September 6, the largest number since the first patient was discovered in March.

Meanwhile, Monday, September 7, the Myanmar government discovered 45 new cases of COVID-19 in just 24 hours.

Suu Kyi, who currently serves as State Advisor / Counselor, is scheduled to campaign on Tuesday 9 September to meet his constituents in person, in Yangon, one of Myanmar's trade centers.

Local authorities set the first day for the campaign, Tuesday, September 8, while elections are scheduled to take place on November 8.

However, in a post on social media Facebook, Suu Kyi said the health minister recommended that she cancel her campaign plans.

Suu Kyi said the health minister was the most powerful person during the pandemic so everyone was obliged to obey the ministry's instructions.

Spokesmen for the National League for Democracy, the party currently ruling in Myanmar, have not yet responded to questions on the issue.

Myanmar was briefly free of local transmission for several weeks until mid-August. Local health authorities at that time reported a new cluster of infections in Rakhine.

Since then, the number of positive patients has more than doubled to 1,464 people and eight of them have died.

A staff member working for Suu Kyi at her residence, Yangon, tested positive for COVID-19 last week. Suu Kyi on Monday said she was concerned about the news.

A number of doctors said they feared the outbreak could worsen given the lack of health care facilities that had been neglected for a long time when Myanmar was controlled by the military junta.