Then there are fears infections are much higher than reported in Indonesia, the regions hardest hit nation throughout the pandemic, as well as plummeting testing rates in post-coup Myanmar and a worrying rise in cases in the Philippines beyond metro Manila.
A COVID test in Sumatra, Indonesia. Credit:AP
In the district of Kudus in Central Java, Indonesia, the number of new daily cases skyrocketed from 26 to 929 in a week after religious activities that followed the festival of Eid al-Fitr to mark the end of Ramadan.
The situation is deeply concerning, Indonesias COVID-19 taskforce spokesman Professor Wiku Adisasmito said on Friday night, noting that 189 health workers in the area were also exposed to the virus.
While much of south-east Asia fared well in the first year of the pandemic while the United States, UK and Europe wore the bulk of the pain, the rise of highly contagious variants and, in some cases, complacency have weakened their defences against the virus in its second year.
We are still very much in the acute phase of [the] pandemic, said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, the World Health Organisations south-east Asia regional director.
A shortage of the vaccine in this corner of the globe is keeping inoculation rates low in all but Singapore and to a lesser extent Cambodia, but just how long these nations have to grin and bear it is in many ways out of their hands.
I think the amount of pain that south-east Asia is going to endure will be a function of what happens in North America and in Europe or more specifically in vaccine-producing countries, said Jeremy Lim, an associate professor at the National University of Singapores Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health.
It is clear, as the WHO has candidly stated, that vaccines are not going to countries or areas that are most in need and there is a rich-and-poor world divide.
But its worth nothing that every country in south-east Asia, maybe other than Brunei, has gone through lockdowns. We know how to do lockdowns. They are excruciatingly painful but we know how to do it.
In Malaysia, where the virus has struck in the greatest scale in the region in the past month, with a record 126 deaths in a day on Wednesday and total cases rising beyond 600,000, the surge has not showed much sign of slowing down five days into a hard lockdown across the country.
I cant see us turning this around in two weeks, said Professor Adeeba Kamarulzaman, Malaysias foremost infectious diseases expert who also oversees the University of Malaya Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur.
It should be a minimum of two incubation periods, which would be four weeks, unfortunately. But I think we should really be talking about getting to a figure like five [new cases] per 100,000 population average over a seven-day period rather than getting to a date.
Adeeba, who is also a member of the WHO science council and on the COVID-19 taskforce in the state of Selangor, has been critical of the Malaysian governments widespread nationwide disinfectant exercises, saying the money spent on that would be better directed elsewhere.
But despite government missteps she, too, knows there is only one way out of the crisis.
I believe our vaccine supply will pick up by July, she said. We all live in hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Until then, were going to have to suffer through these numbers.
– with Karuni Rompies
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