MANILA: Tens of thousands of people ignored government advice and flocked to Manila on Saturday to celebrate the feast of the Black Nazarene, a statue believed to have healing powers.

CHIANG RAI: Police have arrested three Thai drivers and nine illegal Chinese migrants travelling in three cars in Thoeng district of this northern province.

SINGAPORE: The government of Singapore plans to issue urgent legislation to formalise the use of virus contact-tracing data in police investigations of serious crimes.

The government reported a total of 212 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday — 187 local infections, 6 from active testing and 19 arrivals from abroad — raising the cumulative total past 10,000 to 10,053, with no new deaths.

CHON BURI: Twenty-one people, 16 of whom were foreigners, were arrested during a raid on a condominium in Pattaya beach city in the early hours of Saturday.

WASHINGTON: The United States logged a record new daily coronavirus caseload as Joe Biden slammed the Trump administration's vaccine roll-out as a "travesty" and millions in China woke up to new lockdowns.

PATHUM THANI: Authorities have seized more than 2 million substandard medical gloves and other items worth about 150 million baht during a raid on an illegal factory in Lam Luk Ka district.

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump, already facing mounting calls to step down or risk impeachment, suffered further ignominy on Friday when Twitter permanently suspended his account, saying the US leader is too dangerous to use the platform.

The Finance Ministry is set to propose relief measures for cabinet approval next week to help borrowers at state-owned financial institutions in 33 provinces affected by stringent containment restrictions.

The Public Health Ministry is convinced that the second wave of the Covid-19 outbreak that has been raging since last month is likely to slow down by the end of January.