While India suffers, other Asian countries are also seeing worrying Covid-19 spikes

Members of Nepal army personnel wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) carry a body of a person who died from coronavirus disease (COVID-19)  - Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters
Members of Nepal army personnel wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) carry a body of a person who died from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) - Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters
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While the world watches the awful scenes of India's funeral pyres burning round the clock and Covid-19 patients gasping for air, other Asian countries are also facing their own surging waves of infection.

The sheer scale of the crisis unfolding in India has grabbed worldwide attention, but India's health system is not the only one under strain.

In recent weeks countries ranging from Laos to Thailand, Fiji and Nepal have all been reporting significant surges in cases, in what health officials say is a warning the pandemic is far from over.

The arrival of new, more transmissible coronavirus variants is driving fierce waves of infection even in countries that had prided themselves on so far beating the virus.

“It’s very important to realise that the situation in India can happen anywhere,” said Hans Kluge, the regional director at the World Health Organization for Europe, last week.

“This is still a huge challenge.”

America and Europe may be viewing a return to normality driven by successful vaccine programmes, but the WHO's latest update on the spread of the coronavirus this week warned that globally Covid-19 cases remain at the highest they have been.

Nepal's long porous border with India has put it at risk of being swamped by infections from its neighbour. The country is now recording 57 times as many cases as a month ago, with 44 per cent of tests now coming back positive, according to the Red Cross.

Elsewhere in Asia, some of these worrying spikes are in countries that had until recently managed to avoid the heavy levels of infection seen elsewhere.

People in Bangkok waiting for a Covid test - Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters
People in Bangkok waiting for a Covid test - Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

In Laos last week, the health minister sought medical equipment, supplies and treatment, as cases jumped more than 200-fold in a month. Thailand largely managed to keep infections at bay in the first 15 months of the pandemic, but has seen a flare-up in cases from the start of April.

The country's total caseload has more than doubled in a month. Cambodia had also managed to record one of the world's smallest caseloads, until it climbed from about 500 in late February to more than 16,000 now.

The capital, Phnom Penh has been locked down for three weeks, and authorities have transformed schools and wedding party halls into Covid treatment centres as hospitals are running out of beds. Prime Minister Hun Sen has warned the country was "on the brink of death" from the virus outbreak.

Even Vietnam, which has among the lowest number of infections in Southeast Asia, is imposing curbs on public gatherings after reporting a 131 per cent jump in April over the prior month.

Members of the Cambodian armed forces vaccinate people in Phnom Penh - Cindy Liu/Reuters
Members of the Cambodian armed forces vaccinate people in Phnom Penh - Cindy Liu/Reuters

“All countries are at risk,” David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, told Bloomberg.

“The disease appears to be becoming endemic and will therefore likely remain a risk to all countries for the foreseeable future.”

As the divide between the vaccinated and unvaccinated world grows in the coming months, such outbreaks are predicted to continue in developing countries, even as the UK, the US and others put the pandemic behind them.

Such a divide will heap pressure on the better off to do more to help those left behind.

“Now more than ever, we must ensure vaccines equitably reach all populations”, says George Laryea-Adjei, South Asia director for the United Nation's children's body, Unicef. “Manufacturing must be ramped up, technology transferred, and doses equitably shared. None of us are safe until all of us are safe.”

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