Brunei steps up monitoring on unexplained acute hepatitis

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Brunei has stepped up monitoring nationwide to detect cases with acute hepatitis of unknown origin among children aged between one month and 16 years old, the health ministry said on Saturday.

According to the ministry, acute hepatitis is not one of the common features of COVID-19 infection in children or a complication of COVID-19 vaccination in children.

The health ministry said no similar cases have been detected in Brunei so far.

Brunei reported 162 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the total tally to 142,627.

Brunei has recorded less than 1,000 daily new cases for 45 straight days since March 24 after the daily increase during the third wave of infections reached its peak on March 3 at 4,885 cases.

As of May 6, 65.8 percent of Brunei's some 420,000 population have received three doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

The COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and China's Sinopharm are those administered in the Southeast Asian country.

Currently, 735 active cases are being treated and monitored in Brunei, where 141,673 recoveries from COVID-19 have been reported.