Slow vaccination, fast reopening: How Asia and Europe are fuelling surge in Covid-19'

[superadmin]

A surge in new Covid-19 cases in Europe has threatened to stall plans to gradually remove restrictions that have disrupted normal life for much of the past 1½ years.

Meanwhile, countries like Indonesia and Malaysia are seeing record cases and deaths after the highly infectious Delta and Delta-Plus variants arrived on their shores.

The Sunday Times takes a deeper look at the increasingly grim scenario.

Malaysia's strictest Covid-19 restrictions came into effect on Saturday (July 3) in most of the Klang Valley, an area of more than eight million people. 

But tough measures seen in the past such as barbed-wire fences and armed military presence to ensure strict enforcement were absent.

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