(KPL) Prime Minister’s Office has issued a notice instructing ministers and provincial governors to continue to put in place relaxed measures against Covid-19 through the end of October. Traditional and local border checkpoints will remain closed to individual travels, and goods transport (except with permissions from Covid-19 taskforce. International border gates will continue to be closed to individual travels except Lao nationals and foreigners with necessary reasons and granted permissions from the Covid-19 taskforce, and goods transport.

(KPL) The Fondation Mérieux through the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) provided rapid hepatitis B diagnostic kits to the Ministry of Health, which is responsible for distributing them to the country's healthcare and transfusion centres and for collecting prevalence data with this tool.

(KPL) UNICEF is leading efforts to procure and supply COVID-19 vaccines in what could possibly be the world’s largest and fastest ever procurement and supply of vaccines, as part of the global vaccine plan of the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX Facility) led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

(KPL) COVID-19 has shown us that building human capital i.e. investing in skills and capacities of people is critical if countries, societies and people are to recover and adapt to changing circumstances.

(KPL) The UN partners including UNFPA have been awarded specific funding through the Multi-Partners Trust Fund (MPTF) to support the Ministry of Health to safeguard essential Sexual Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health (SRMNCAH) services while dealing with COVID-19 pandemic. The main purpose of MPTF is to support the government of the Lao PDR, especially the Ministry of Health to start establishing mechanisms to address barriers, in the time of COVID-19, for clients to continue to access essential SRMNCAH services.

(KPL) Star Fintech Sole Co., LTD signed an agreement with Welcome Leasing Lao to launch "Leasing Payments" services in Vientiane on Sep 23.

(KPL) The Institute of Computer and Electronic Technology of the Ministry of Sciences and Technology in cooperation with Korean firms and with support from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency to the Lao PDR held a meeting to discuss the necessity of using big data for the management of domestic and foreign workers in the country and Lao workers working abroad.

(KPL) The National University of Laos organized on Sep 22 a consultation meeting for review of its social work curriculum for the integration of mental health psychosocial support (MHPSS).

(KPL) Electricite du Laos (EDL) met local media in Vientiane on Sep 22 to ensure the latter understand electricity-related data of the EDL and to prepare for EDL’s upcoming seminar at the National University of Laos which will be held on Sep 28.

(KPL) Recognizing that the business sector has a critical role to play in achieving the sustainable development goals, including through the human capital investments in Laos, UNFPA and the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare organized a stakeholder consultation on Noi Friendly Business Criteria on Sep 17, 2020.