Asia’s Aggressive Virus Resurgence Highlights Global Containment Challenge
Asia’s Aggressive Virus Resurgence Highlights Global Containment Challenge
(Bloomberg) -- Coronavirus resurgences in the Asia-Pacific region reached new heights this week, with Hong Kong, Tokyo and Australia’s Victoria state seeing consecutive record growth in infections in a sign containing the virus is becoming more challenging across the world.
Hong Kong reported 111 locally-transmitted virus cases on Thursday -- its second day of more than 100 local infections -- as the city scrambles to boost hospitalization and testing capacity in the face of its worst outbreak ever.
In Japan, the start of a four-day holiday weekend was marred by a record 366 cases detected in Tokyo, as well as a second day of more than 100 cases in Osaka, a worrying indication that the flare-up is spreading nationwide. Victoria reported 403 cases on Thursday, following Wednesday’s record 484, despite capital city Melbourne entering the mid-point of a fresh, six-week lockdown.
A number of new cases were also reported across China in its northeastern and western parts, while the swelling outbreaks in Indonesia and India, two of Asia’s most-populous countries, showed no sign of losing momentum.
The reversal being seen in the region, considered to have broadly curbed the virus more effectively than elsewhere globally, illustrates the limitations of containment measures in an inter-connected world and facing a highly-contagious pathogen that can spread silently for months. The worsening picture has forced governments to roll back plans to re-open and return to tightened social distancing measures, stamping out green shoots of economic recovery.
“The problem is that they are going to be constantly at risk of the virus coming back,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “This is one you never win. This is one you always, at the end of every day, hope to break even.”
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