While vaccinations are now rolling out in force, the world is far from being out of the COVID-19 woods. In this month’s edition of ‘From the Hill’, we take a close look at how public policies (or the lack thereof) have sowed the seeds of the coronavirus’ recent escalation across Asia and why policy accountability is more crucial than ever – especially as citizens are now depending more heavily on their governments to get their lives back on track.
Feature Topic
The world is watching India’s coronavirus crisis but Asia’s developing nations are all at risk
Photo credit: Reuters
On 19 May, India reported a record of 4,529 coronavirus deaths in a single day. The past month and a half saw the country record the highest number of cases – surpassing Brazil – with news of people struggling for oxygen, hospital beds or rations across the country continuing to spotlight the harrowing toll of one of the worst global crises in recent memory.
What has happened in India, while initiated by the onslaught of a deadly variant of the coronavirus, is being increasingly coined as a ‘man-made disaster’. For critics of the government’s handling of the crisis (which even includes former civil servants), the pandemic exposes the weakest links of India’s governance and national health policies – which has been attributed to it prioritising private healthcare over public healthcare, in addition to spending a relatively meagre portion of its GDP on healthcare. What these point to, for critics, is that India was inherently insufficiently prepared to deal with a crisis of COVID-19’s magnitude.
Yet, while much of the world has its eyes on India, the situation happening in other parts of Asia – especially in emerging regions like Southeast Asia – also remains dire. In Thailand, the country broke a daily record of 9,635 new cases, with most of the infected being prisoners, leading to discussions as to whether a mass release of inmates should be done as a stopgap measure. Further down south in Malaysia and Singapore (countries that were credited for their COVID-19 efforts at the onset of the crisis), the governments of both nations have implemented stricter movement control measures – with Malaysia already implementing total lockdowns in certain areas. Meanwhile, countries like Indonesia are bracing for a worsening of their situation, especially following this month’s Eid festivities.
The recent spikes around the world – and especially across Asia – may have dampened hopes that vaccination drives will help to immediately curb the crisis. As governments and public policy stakeholders continue to combat the pandemic, their citizens must also continue to keep them accountable. This can help ensure that the ultimate aim is to empower all sections of society to reclaim normalcy in their lives and emerge stronger from the situation.
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COVID map: Coronavirus cases, deaths, vaccinations by country
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COVID-19: India's Oxygen Crisis | In Conversation | Ramanan Laxminarayan, Economist & Epidemiologist
Podcast
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