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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.
The Straits Times
From Asia to the Caribbean, cases are rising amid complacency, spread of virus variants
PublishedMay 5, 2021, 5:00 am SGT
https://str.sg/JtNu
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Let s go!
by Tyler Durden
Tuesday, May 04, 2021 - 03:00 PM
Just as the WHO feared, India s brutal second wave has spilled over its borders, sending COVID-19 cases rising across the region, as cases climb in neighboring Bhutan and Nepal and as far away as Laos and Thailand.
According to Bloomberg, the acceleration in the region is mainly due to more contagious mutant strains, like the B.1617 variant first identified in India, which has been now been traced beyond its borders. The WHO has released a list of 10 mutant strains that it is keeping a close eye on.
New strains are identified every day as the virus continues to evolve, but only a handful make the WHO’s official watchlist as a variant of interest or the more serious designation variant of concern, which is generally defined as a mutated strain that’s more contagious, more deadly and more resistant to current vaccines and treatments.
Border risk of South African variant
published : 3 May 2021 at 07:39
3 A health worker prepares to administer the Sinovac coronavirus disease Samut Sakhon Hospital in Samut Sakhon on Feb 28, 2021. (Reuters photo)
Top virologist Yong Poovorawan has warned regional authorities to keep a close watch on border crossings from Malaysia where the highly contagious South African variant is spreading, saying it could reduce the efficacy of the vaccines.
Dr Yong, chief of the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology at Chulalongkorn University, on Sunday posted on his Facebook page that concerned agencies must ramp up measures to keep the B.1.351 variant from spreading in the country.