It’s Not
Just India. New Virus Waves Hit Developing Countries
By
Jinshan Hong, Randy Thanthong-Knight, and Jason Scott
4 Mayıs 2021 00:00 GMT+3 Updated on 4 Mayıs 2021 13:00 GMT+3
·
Laos,
Nepal and Thailand risk facing India-like Covid crisis
·
Situation in India can happen anywhere,
WHO’s Hans Kluge says
WATCH: Developing nations are putting
out renewed calls for medical supplies and aid as they battle fierce new waves
of covid infections. Jinshan Hong reports.
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It’s not just India. Fierce new Covid-19 waves are
enveloping other developing countries across the world, placing severe strain
on their health-care systems and prompting appeals for help.
Nations ranging from Laos to Thailand in Southeast
Asia, and those bordering India such as Bhutan and Nepal, have been reporting
significant surges in infections in the past few weeks. The increase is mainly
because of more contagious virus variants, though complacency and lack of
resources to contain the spread have also been cited as reasons.
In Laos last week, the health
minister sought medical
equipment, supplies and treatment, as cases jumped more than 200-fold in a
month. Nepal is seeing hospitals
quickly filling up and running out of oxygen supplies. Health facilities are
under pressure in Thailand, where 98% of new cases are from a more infectious
strain of the pathogen, while some island nations in the Pacific Ocean are
facing their first Covid waves.
Nepalese army officials salute to Covid-19
victims at a crematorium in Kathmandu on May 1.
Photographer: Bikash Karki/AFP/Getty
Images
Although nowhere close to India’s population or flare-up
in scope, the reported spikes in these handful of nations have been far
steeper, signaling the potential dangers of an uncontrolled spread. The
resurgence -- and first-time outbreaks in some places that largely avoided the
scourge last year -- heightens the urgency of delivering vaccine supplies to
poorer, less influential countries and averting a protracted pandemic.
“It’s very important to realize that the
situation in India can happen anywhere,” said Hans Kluge, the regional director
at the World Health Organization for
Europe, during a briefing last week. “This is still a huge challenge.”
Globally, Where Are Cases Surging the Most?
The virus is threatening the developing
world less equipped to curb it
Note: The past month measures data as of
May 2
Source: Johns Hopkins University,
Bloomberg
Ranked by the change in newly recorded infections in
the past month over the previous month, Laos came first with a 22,000%
increase, followed by Nepal and Thailand, both of which saw fresh caseload
skyrocketing more than 1,000% on a month-over-month basis.
Also on top of the list are Bhutan,
Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Cambodia and Fiji, as they witnessed the
epidemic erupt at a high triple-digit pace.
“All countries are at risk,” said David Heymann, a
professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene
& Tropical Medicine. “The disease appears to be becoming endemic and will
therefore likely remain a risk to all countries for the foreseeable future.”
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14 Days After India Variant Found
On May 1, India reported a record 401,993 new cases in
the prior 24 hours, while deaths touched a new high of 3,689 the following day.
The nation’s hospitals and crematoriums are working overtime to cope with the
sick and the surging number of deaths. Compounding the crisis, health-care
facilities are also facing a shortage of medical oxygen, unable to treat
distressed patients with coronavirus-infected lungs gasping for air at their
doorsteps.
The abrupt outbreak in Laos -- a place that only
recorded 60 cases since the start of the pandemic through April 20 and no death
to date -- shows the challenges facing some of the landlocked nations. Porous
borders make it harder to clamp down on illegal crossings though entry is
technically banned.
Airport staff unload the China-donated
vaccines at Wattay International Airport in Vientiane, Laos, on March 31.
Photographer: Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua/Getty
Images
Communist-ruled Laos has ordered lockdowns
in its capital Vientiane and banned travel between the capital and provinces.
The health minister reached out to
neighbors like Vietnam for assistance on life-saving resources. Nepal and
Bhutan have seen cases erupt, in part due to returning nationals. Nepal, which has
identified cases of the new Indian variant, has limited resources to combat the
virus. The Himalayan nation said it’s suspending most flights and turning major
hospitals into Covid care facilities.
‘Very Serious’
The situation is “very serious,” according to Ali
Mokdad, Chief Strategy Officer for Population Health at the University of
Washington. “New variants will require a new vaccine and a booster for those
already vaccinated -- they will delay the control of the pandemic.”
Mokdad said the economic hardship of poorer countries
make the battle even tougher.
Thailand, which had been seeking to revive its ailing
tourism industry, just reintroduced a two-week mandatory quarantine for all
visitors. A government forecast for 2021 tourism revenue was cut to 170 billion
baht ($5.5 billion), from January’s expectations for 260 billion baht. With the
country’s public health system under pressure, authorities are trying to set up
field hospitals to accommodate a flood of patients.
About 98% of cases in Thailand are of the variant
first identified in the U.K. based on a sample of 500 people, according to Yong
Poovorawan, chief of the Center of Excellence in Clinical Virology at
Chulalongkorn University.
Medical officers collect swab samples to
test for Covid-19 in southern Thailand’s Yala province on May 1.
Photographer: Tuwaedaniya
Meringing/AFP/Getty Images
Red Zone
In Cambodia, since the beginning of the current
outbreak, more than 10,000 locally acquired cases have been detected in more
than 20 provinces. The Cambodian capital Phnom Penh is now a “red zone,” or a
high-risk outbreak area. In Sri Lanka, the island-nation at the southern tip of
India, authorities have isolated areas, banned weddings and meetings and closed
cinemas and pubs to cap a record spike following last month’s local New Year
festivities. The government says the situation is under control.
Even Vietnam, which has among the lowest
number of infections in Southeast Asia, is imposing curbs on public gatherings after
reporting a 131% jump in April over the prior month. With daily cases topping
3,000 last week for the first time since February, Malaysia is set to tighten restrictions May 6 through May 17 in six
districts of Selangor, the country’s richest state.
Across the oceans in the Caribbean,
Trinidad and Tobago announced a
partial lockdown after the country’s daily cases hit a record high, closing
restaurants, malls and cinemas until late May. The case count in the latest
month is about 700% more than the previous month.
That high level of increase is also seen in Suriname,
on the northeastern coast of South America. Cases in April rose over 600% from
that in March.
Wrong Direction
Covid infections and deaths have both
picked up pace worldwide
After staying relatively Covid-free thanks to strict
border controls, some of the Pacific island-nations are now seeing their first
wave. Cities in the tourist hot spot of Fiji have gone into lockdown after the
wider community contracted the virus from the military.
“The recent rise in recorded cases throughout the
Pacific reveals how critical it is to not just rely on strong borders but to
actually get vaccines into these countries,” said Jonathan Pryke, who heads
research on the Pacific region for the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think
tank. “India is a shocking warning to this part of the world about how quickly
this pandemic can spiral out of control.”
Security officers man a checkpoint in Suva
on April 27 following a Covid-19 spike.
Photographer: Leon Lord/AFP/Getty Images
There’s a duty for developed countries, recovering
from the pandemic thanks to rapid inoculations, to contribute to a more
equitable global distribution of vaccines, diagnostic tests and therapeutic
agents including oxygen, according to Heymann, the professor at the London
School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
The world hasn’t seen a concerted global
response yet, and that is a concern, said Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at
the Johns Hopkins Center for Health
Security in Baltimore.
Getting back to pre-2020 normalcy “really
depends on helping countries gain control of this virus as much as possible,”
she said. “I really hope countries can look within
themselves and figure out what they can do to help.”
— With assistance by Anusha Ondaatjie,
Jason Gale, Anisah Shukry, and Mai Ngoc Chau
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