Having escaped the worst when the coronavirus pandemic erupted last year, Southeast Asia is now suffering record rises in deaths and cases, while vaccination shortfalls and highly contagious variants have derailed containment efforts, said Reuters on Friday. As countries like Britain, Germany and France prepare to remove most remaining restrictions after devastating outbreaks, governments in Southeast Asia have been tightening measures, hoping targeted lockdowns will act as circuit-breakers in arresting dramatic spikes after cases started rising in May, according to Reuters.

Reuters quoted Griffith University epidemiologist Dicky Budiman who said the region was struggling to cope with the Delta variant. He stressed the need to increase vaccination to better protect the community.

Vaccination rates remain low, with 5.4% of Indonesia’s 270 million population fully inoculated, about 2.7% of people in the Philippines and 4.7% of the population in Thailand. Malaysia has vaccinated 9.3% of its 32 million people and has introduced an enhanced lockdown in its capital and industrial belt.

Source: VOV5