Will South-east Asia be swamped by Covid-19, like in South Asia?

[superadmin]

SINGAPORE - Largely spared the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic for most of last year, South-east Asia is now in the grip of a new wave of infections that is putting unprecedented pressure on healthcare systems and threatening to bring economies to their knees.

In Thailand, hospital beds are quickly filling up after infections, first seeded in some exclusive entertainment outlets in Bangkok, resulted in the country's highest-ever number of daily cases early last month. The number spiked again after Songkran, the Thai New Year.

Since then, the caseload has crept upwards and has more than quadrupled to nearly 135,000 as the authorities struggled to contain outbreaks in overcrowded prisons, markets and camps housing construction workers.

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