As Delta Variant Surges, Outbreaks Return in Many Parts of the World
By Beech & Albeck-Ripka, 6/30/21, New York Times

The nightmare is returning.
In Indonesia, grave diggers are working into the night,
as oxygen & vaccines are in short supply. In Europe,
countries are slamming their doors shut once again, with
quarantines & travel bans. In Bangladesh, urban garment
workers fleeing an impending lockdown are almost assuredly
seeding another surge in their impoverished home villages.

And in countries like South Korea & Israel that seemed to
have largely vanquished the virus, new clusters of disease
have proliferated. Chinese health officials announced on
Mon that they'd build a giant quarantine ctr with up to
5,000 rooms to hold int'l travelers. Australia has ordered
millions to stay at home.

A year & a half since it began racing across the globe with
exponential efficiency, the pandemic is on the rise again
in vast stretches of the world, driven largely by the new
variants, particularly the highly contagious Delta variant
first identified in India. From Africa to Asia, countries
are suffering from record Covid caseloads & deaths, even as
wealthier nations with high vaccination rates have let their
guard down, dispensing with mask mandates & reveling in life
edging back toward normalcy.

Scientists believe the Delta variant may be twice as trans-
missible as the original virus, & its potential to infect
some partially vaccinated people has alarmed public health
officials. Unvaccinated populations, whether in India or
Indiana, may serve as incubators of new variants that could
evolve in surprising & dangerous ways, with Delta giving
rise to what Indian researchers are calling Delta Plus.
There are also the Gamma & Lambda variants.

“We’re in a race against the spread of the virus variants,”
said Prof. Kim Woo-joo, an infectious disease specialist
at Korea Univ Guro Hospital in Seoul.

The political debates underway from Malaysia to the
Seychelles — whether to institute lockdowns & mask require-
ments — are starting to echo in countries with far more
resources, including plentiful vaccines. On Monday, health
officials in L.A. County, where Delta variant infections
are climbing, urged residents, even immunized ones, to wear
masks indoors. (Many scientists, however, say masks are not
necessary for the fully immunized in areas where the virus
is not widespread.)

But while the new images from Nepal or Kenya of overflowing
intensive-care units & dying doctors dredge up terrible
memories for the West, it is not clear whether they also
provide a glimpse into the future.

Most existing vaccines appear to be effective against the
Delta variant, & initial research indicates that those
who are infected are likely to develop mild or asymptomatic
cases. But even in the wealthiest countries — except for a
handful of nations with small populations — fewer than half
the people are fully vaccinated. Experts say that with new
variants spreading, markedly higher vaccination rates &
continued precautions are needed to tame the pandemic.

The smoke rising once more from crematories in less affluent
nations has highlighted the gulf between the world’s haves
& have-nots. Vast inequalities in economic development,
health care systems & — despite promises of world leaders —
vaccine access have made the latest surge much bigger &
much deadlier.

“The developed countries used up the resources available
because they own the resources & they want to protect their
people first,” said Dono Widiatmoko, a senior lecturer in
health & social care at the Univ of Derby & a member of
the Indonesian Public Health Assn. “It’s natural, but if
we look it from a human rights point of view, every life
has the same value.”

And as the public health officials keep repeating, & the
pandemic keeps proving, as long as one region is afflicted,
no part of the world is safe.

As the Delta variant wreaked havoc in India this spring,
when the pandemic killed more than 200,000 people there —
an official count that is widely seen as too low — &
paralyzed the economy, it also leapt national borders,
infecting climbers on Mt Everest, pro-democracy protesters
in Myanmar & travelers to London’s Heathrow Airport. Today,
it has been detected in at least 85 countries & is the
dominant strain in parts of Europe, Asia & Africa.

The variant’s ferocious transmissibility was on full
display in Indonesia, the world’s 4th-most-populous country.

In May, infections there were at their lowest point since
the country was gripped by the pandemic last year. By late
June, Indonesia was suffering record caseloads as the Delta
variant took hold after a religious holiday scattered
travelers across the archipelago. On Tues, the Int'l
Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent warned that the
country was “on the edge of catastrophe.”

Fewer than 5% of Indonesians have been fully vaccinated,
& frontline medical workers were immunized with Sinovac,
the Chinese-made vaccine that may be less effective than
other inoculations. At least 20 Indonesian doctors who
received both doses of Sinovac have died. But with Western
countries hoarding what appear to be more potent vaccines,
countries like Indonesia & Mongolia have had no choice but
plentiful Chinese-made alternatives.

Last week, the Hong Kong authorities suspended passenger
flights from Indonesia, and they are doing the same with
travel from Britain starting on July 1.

In May, Portugal tried to resuscitate its tourism industry
by welcoming back sun seekers from Britain, despite reports
of the Delta variant’s spread there. Within a few weeks,
the British govt had instituted a quarantine for travelers
from Portugal, including returning vacationers.

With Delta variant cases sharply increasing, Lisbon went
into weekend lockdown, & Germany deemed Portugal a “virus
variant zone.” Now Portugal has backed away from its tourist
welcome & is requiring unvaccinated British travelers to
quarantine.

Some Portuguese hoteliers are despondent. Isabel Pereira,
a guesthouse owner, said half of her bookings have been
canceled, & she understands the tourists’ concerns.

“I can't unfortunately even tell them for sure what to
expect tomorrow, let alone next week,” she said.

For others, the past is repeating itself with
turbocharged velocity.

In Bangladesh, scientists found that nearly 70% of corona
samples from the capital, Dhaka, taken between May 25-
June 7 were the Delta variant. Corona test positivity rates
this week have hovered around 25%, compared to 2% in the US.

On Wed, Bangladesh recorded its highest-ever daily case
count. The numbers look set to climb higher as migrant
workers return to their villages ahead of a July 1 nation-
wide lockdown, potentially exposing those communities
to the virus.

The nationwide shutdown means that all domestic public
transport networks will be suspended & all shops closed
for at least a week. But with Bangladesh’s export-driven
economy battered by the pandemic, the govt has refrained
from idling garment factories & mills.

“They are hard-working people,” said Mohammed Nasir, the
former VP of the Bangladesh Garment Mfrs & Exporters Assn.
“Their immune systems are stronger.”

If pandemic history is any precedent, such crowded quarters,
just like prisons or mass religious gatherings, can turn
into petri dishes of infection. Many garment workers,
though, are desperate to keep their jobs, esp. with annual
bonuses due soon.

Despite promises from various countries and int'l orgs,
vaccine deliveries to Bangladesh have been underwhelming.
Fewer than 3% of Bangladeshis have been fully vaccinated.

“We are working to make a balance,” Nasir said,
“between lives & livelihoods.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/world/asia/virus-delta-variant-global.html