- Mao Yuanyang, Andreas Illmer
- BBC reporter
Image source,Reuters
Like many neighboring countries and regions, Japan has contained the epidemic for a long time.
Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan.
These places in the Asia-Pacific region have been praised for their response to the epidemic, and some of them are considered the best in the world.
They have all controlled the new crown epidemic in 2020 with very active measures such as strict blockade and contact tracing, and their practices are often used for reference by other places.
However, in the second year of the global pandemic, these places are facing new challenges. More destructive strains have broken through their existing lines of defense, leading to the worst epidemics in some areas.
At the same time, many other regions of the world seem to be rejuvenated by vaccination and are gradually reopening. This makes some places that have won the prestige of epidemic prevention by strict prevention and death are now facing criticism-they do not have a reliable solution that has a clear model, and they cannot be isolated from the world forever.
Initial success
First, let’s take a look at how these places succeeded in fighting the new crown in the early stages of the epidemic.
When the virus first came to the above eight places, closing the border was one of the earliest and most effective measures they took. Many of these places are islands, which makes border control relatively easy.
Strict border policies mean that in order to ensure that the virus does not spread widely among the local population, they either deny entry to most or all people from other areas, or enter the country for a long time in hotel isolation.
The most stringent regulations are Australia. During the second wave of the epidemic in India, Australia once banned its citizens from returning from India due to fears that Australian citizens returning from India would bring the virus back.
When a case did enter the community, Australia took quick and rigorous contact tracing actions to prevent the spread of the virus.
Singapore itself already has an extremely powerful police surveillance system, and the effectiveness of this system in quickly cutting the chain of transmission is fully demonstrated here.
In the capitals of some states in Australia, even if there is only one confirmed case, the city will be quickly closed. This situation has occurred eight times in six different cities.
This policy may be considered extreme, but it worked at the time and created a protective bubble. After the initial lockdown measures in the first wave of the epidemic were lifted, these places were able to get close to returning to normal life.
New Zealand was one of the first countries to close the city, and it was also the first place to be cleared in a true sense. In June 2020, the local government liberalized almost all its social distancing measures.
The confirmed cases in other places in the eight regions have also dropped to a sporadic level, which has allowed them to relax many internal epidemic prevention measures.
New outbreaks in 2021
However, since May this year, under the influence of more powerful mutant strains, gradual complacency and relaxation of regulations, the epidemic situation in many of the above-mentioned places has begun to rise slightly.
The most severe rise in the epidemic is in Taiwan and Vietnam. These two places are now experiencing the full impact of the new crown epidemic.
Just a few months ago, the new crown epidemics in South Korea and Japan reached new highs. The governments of the two countries are highly vigilant about this, so in Japan, many people worry that this will affect the upcoming Olympic Games.
Image source,Getty Images
In Tokyo, some people took to the streets to call for the cancellation of the Olympics.
However, in these places where new outbreaks have emerged, the infection rate has been halved. Experts say that for places like South Korea that have never been strictly locked down, the rapid tracking of unity efforts with local communities has once again helped the infection curve drop.
There were also smaller outbreaks in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia, which prompted an immediate response from the authorities. For example, Melbourne, Australia has a two-week short-term lockdown, and Singapore also has a four-week partial lockdown.
The vaccine dilemma
However, although these places are successfully controlling new outbreaks through reliable means, they are also aware of a bitter truth.
Despite the success in preventing the spread of the virus, the results of promoting the vaccine were not satisfactory.
At the beginning of the pandemic, vaccine procurement was a problem on a global scale, but if economic conditions permit, most countries with severe epidemics can quickly advance vaccination plans. In areas with low infection rates, the promotion of vaccines is slower, and there is a bit of complacency in ensuring that citizens have enough vaccines.
Image source,Getty Images
The vaccination progress of many countries in the Asia-Pacific region lags far behind Europe and the United States.
For example, the United States and Europe have vaccinated nearly or more than half of the population, and many South American countries have received millions of doses of the vaccine. These countries are now slowly working to reach a vaccination rate that allows the local area to reopen even if there are still cases.
However, this is not the case for these “outstanding students” in epidemic prevention in the Asia-Pacific region.
The vaccination rate in these places is still less than a quarter. And these places, such as Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and Taiwan, are all prosperous. You might think that their purchasing capabilities will be similar to those of Europe and the United States.
In Hong Kong, Taiwan and other places, some citizens are hesitant to vaccination. They do not believe in the health department and the safety of the vaccine, which further slows down the vaccination schedule.
The only one with better vaccination progress among the eight regions is Singapore, where about 42% of the population has received at least one dose.
But considering that Singapore is an urban country with a population of just over 5 million, the actual vaccination volume here is still very small, especially when compared with the 250 million vaccination volume in India.
Exit strategy?
New coronary pneumonia is likely to continue to exist as a regional epidemic, and vaccines are the only way for countries to get out of the predicament.
But before the realization of herd immunity, these Asian anti-epidemic models seem to be reluctant to relax the strict measures that have worked very well before, such as closing borders, closing cities, and maintaining social distancing.
After Australia announced that it will keep its borders closed until mid-2022, a debate about how long Australia’s “hermit kingdom” status can be maintained began.
Although there are currently no plans to open the border, there have been some rumors that the restrictions will be carefully lifted in stages. There are also discussions on opening up tourism bubbles in different “safe” countries and regions.
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Some Asian countries are conducting research and discussions on the idea of travel bubbles.
Hong Kong and Singapore had reached a similar plan, but the plan was shelved due to an outbreak of new cases.
This operation has already begun between Australia and New Zealand, and most of the time there are almost no new local cases in these two countries. However, whenever there are a large number of new cases, this channel will be stopped.
Experts warn that because the new crown virus has become so prevalent around the world, in order for countries to truly open up, all societies must abandon the unrealistic mentality of “zero cases” and “coexist” with the virus.
There are also calls that local governments need to formulate a clearer exit strategy, that is, a phased goal in parallel with rapid vaccination, and this strategy is currently not in place.