Cambodia Leader’s Virus Exposure Shows Risk to China’s Neighbors
(Bloomberg) -- After several Asian countries shunned the Westerdam cruise ship over fears of the coronavirus, Cambodia’s strongman leader Hun Sen went above and beyond in welcoming passengers to his country: he handed them roses and shook their hands.
The gesture, done in close collaboration with the U.S. embassy, won him praise from President Donald Trump and was initially hailed as a humanitarian move after the ship was stuck at sea for two weeks. But soon it emerged the tests Cambodia conducted failed to detect an infected American citizen among the 2,200 passengers on board, prompting fears they could contribute to the further spread of the virus.
“Some people say it brings the virus to Cambodia, but Cambodia has not had the disease,” Hun Sen, a close China ally who visited Beijing during the outbreak, said in a speech on Tuesday as he defended the decision. A government spokesman declined to answer questions on concerns Hun Sen could have been exposed to the virus.
The episode highlights concerns that some of China’s less developed neighbors such as Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar and North Korea may not have the infrastructure to properly screen infected travelers or cope with a virus outbreak.
Although there may be less risk of the coronavirus spreading to these countries because of lower population density and fewer transport links compared to regional hubs like Hong Kong and Singapore, their weak health infrastructure leaves them vulnerable, said Sofia Nazalya, an Asia analyst at global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.
“An outbreak in these countries is likely to severely test their public healthcare systems,” Nazalya said. “We don’t expect that detection and precautionary measures in public spaces to be top-notch, so it’s likely that in the event of undetected cases, local transmission clusters are expected.”
Capacity Concerns
As Beijing fights to contain the virus at home, Foreign Minister Wang Yi headed to Laos on Wednesday to discuss the outbreak with regional counterparts, highlighting global concerns about the potential impact on China’s poorer neighbors. Laos has yet to report any confirmed cases of COVID-19, though it is one of several nations with weaker health systems along China’s periphery that remain at risk.
Many of China’s neighbors sit lower down on the United Nations Human Development Index, which ranks countries based on factors from health and life expectancy to education and wages. While China ranks 85, Cambodia is at 146, Myanmar is at 145, Laos is at 140, Kyrgyzstan is at 122 and Mongolia is at 92. By comparison, Hong Kong is ranked fourth, Singapore placed ninth and Japan was at 19.
In Mongolia, the country’s risk of importing the coronavirus triggered concerns about the health system’s ability to handle an outbreak. The government said it was at “high risk” because of the Central Asian nation’s nearly 5,000 kilometer (2,880 mile) border with China, World Health Organization Representative Sergey Diorditsa said in Ulaanbaatar Tuesday.
The country, which has yet to declare a case of the coronavirus, suspended China-bound exports of coal -- one of the country’s largest sources of foreign trade revenue.
High Stakes
The stakes are even higher in North Korea, one of the world’s most isolated countries. Rodong Sinmun, a newspaper for the ruling Workers Party, said Tuesday “not a single person” had been confirmed with coronavirus in the country, after last month describing the fight against the outbreak as “an important political issue related to the national survival.“
Despite a lack of resources, China’s neighbors are working hard to avoid a local outbreak.
Along with travel restrictions, governments have insisted citizens stay at home and canceled public gatherings, festivals and celebrations. In Mongolia, authorities banned the celebration of the local Lunar New Year festival later this month, while North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toned down birthday celebrations for his late father Kim Jong Il.
In Myanmar, officials have been screening at the border with China’s southern Yunnan province and doing contact-tracing in local hotels where foreigners have been staying, according to Khin Khin Gyi, a deputy director at the Contagious Disease Prevention and Eradication Division of the Department of Public Health.
“Previously, we had to send the samples of virus suspects to a WHO reference laboratory in Thailand -- now, we have upgraded our National Health Laboratory so we will be able to do independent testing of the virus, starting from Thursday,” she said.
--With assistance from Philip J. Heijmans, Khine Lin Kyaw and Jon Herskovitz.
To contact the reporters on this story: Terrence Edwards in Ulaanbaatar at tedwards100@bloomberg.net;Iain Marlow in Hong Kong at imarlow1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Ruth Pollard, Muneeza Naqvi
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