COVID-19 pandemic and Indian neighbours

At a time when world is struggling to combat COVID-19 pandemic, the situation in India's neighbouring countries also remains grim. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and other neighbouring countries are badly affected by the virus. The impact of COVID-19 thunderbolt on Pakistan, where 25% of the country's population is living in poverty, has been unimaginable. It is estimated that about 1.87 crore people will lose their jobs due to the lockdown.

Hyderabad: India has been practicing a nation-wide lockdown for months now, in order to curb the spread of corona. On the other hand, our neighbour, China, which unfortunately happens to be the center of the virus’s birth, has largely succeeded in controlling the spread of the virus.

Question arises as to what are the other neighboring countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar doing? How is the COVID-19 effect over there? How are the decisions of those governments being taken? What kind of hardship are those people having? What is the economic situation in these backward countries? What are the medical precautions being undertaken? Such interesting things are being discussed below:

Afghanistan

Lack of necessary infrastructure and services

Afghanistan, a Taliban-afflicted country, is also ravaging with Corona. With the poverty and infrastructure shortage already in place, the country's economic situation has worsened further with the recent government decision of lockdown and other measures to curb the spread of the virus.

Thousands of self-employment units were shut down. Millions have lost their jobs. The government is now totally dependent on China, Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan and India to protect the poor. New problems have arisen with millions of Afghans returning from Pakistan and Iran.

With the citizens reaching Afghanistan from Iran, the first case of COVID-19 has been reported on February 24th and the first case of death due to COVID-19 has been reported on March 22nd.

The major reason for the fast rate of the virus spread in the country has been rooted to the violation of the quarantine rules by the affected and the non-affected persons. This led to a rapid rise in the infections among the country population, which resulted in the immediate lockdown of almost all the provinces of the country. The severity of the pandemic is such that even the Talibans have been supporting the lockdown.

Pakistan

Social penetration with latent carriers

The impact of COVID-19 thunderbolt on Pakistan, where 25% of the country's population is living in poverty, has been unimaginable. It is estimated that about 1.87 crore people will lose their jobs due to the lockdown.

Two students, who traveled to Iran, were first diagnosed with the virus on 26th February. The first death was reported on 30th March. The Tablighi Jamaat gathering that was organized in Lahore between March 10-12, resulted in creation of ‘Super Spreaders’ of the virus. Over a million people, including representatives of 40 countries and locals, attended the event without heading to the government’s warning of ‘social distancing’.

This caused the virus to spread at a rapid stage. As the cases escalated, the authorities quarantined about 20,000 Tablighi attendees. Since March 15, all the states, have one after the other started announcing lockdowns. However, the central government extended the lockdown until April 30, as about 79% of all infected cases are due to social outbreaks. Now the restrictions are a little relaxed.

Nearly 8 crore poor people in the country are being paid Rs.11,000 towards meeting their current needs. Yet, millions are starving. Though there are concerns that the virus is spreading at a fast pace, the government has allowed the opening of mosques for the prayers of Ramzan. There have been warnings that the lack of speed in tests is the main reason that not a number of positive cases are being identified and because of this, a lot of latent carriers or asymptomatic patients are roaming around freely. Such patients pose a grave danger to the society. However, the authorities and the government have been prepared for any untoward situation through arranging at least 1.18 lakhs of beds in the country, for emergency.

Nepal

No Budget even for Conducting Tests

Corona symptoms were seen in a young man who was returning from Wuhan to Nepal on 23rd January. However there were no kits available in the country to test him. A test for diagnosing Covid-19 virus, can cost up to 17,000 Nepalese rupees. Hence the person’s samples were sent to Singapore where it was tested positive. He was immediately quarantined. Later he was released on the advice of staying isolated, at home for the next nine days.

As they observed a rapid growth in the symptomatic cases, the government purchased around 100 testing kits in the first phase. This by itself is a reflection of Nepal’s impoverished state of affairs. Thus Nepal, with an already low economic index has been hit further badly as it shares its borders with the-Corona hit India and China.

Tourism is the main source of income of this country. Foreign tourists flock to the country for various mountaineering expeditions on Mount Everest and also to enjoy the natural beauty of the country. Nepal had to cancel its tourist visas owing to the epidemic and also the Indo-Nepal border had to be closed down. The lockdown has been in effect since March 24. As a result, lakhs of people are in the danger of losing their jobs. The Mountaineers and the people who earn their wages by supporting them are idle now. Even emergency medicines are being supplied by the Government of India only.

Bhutan

Reassurance because of quick response

The first corona case in Bhutan was registered on 6th March. A 79- year-old traveler from the United States was found to have been infected with corona and immediately, his wife and 70 others were isolated. On the 13th day of the same month, the American left for his country. However, his wife and driver remained in Bhutan itself.

Having come to know about the spread of virus in India, the king of the Bhutan closed the entire Indo-Bhutan border. Imports of various goods were also banned. Those who are studying and working in India, Maldives and Sri Lanka have been evacuated and moved to Quarantine centers set up in the country's capital, Thimphu. They were sent home only after completely recovering. This way, the situation is brought under control.

Sri Lanka

A citizen-centric preparation

Sri Lanka has shown the world how to deal with a medical emergency in the nation. The government had been prepared for the catastrophe and acted upfront, keeping the welfare of its citizens on a priority. The government’s alertness had helped the nation’s safety to a great extent.

Initially, Sri Lanka was ranked at 16th position in the list of the countries in which the virus had been spreading at an alarming rate. However with its proper strategies and implementation of the same, it is recently ranking at 9th position in the list of countries that were successfully overcoming the deadly epidemic. This is a proven fact of the successful strategies the government had been implementing across its country.

As soon as the WHO released alerts on the virus and the epidemic, al the airports in the country have been filled with screening centers. On January 27th, a woman who returned from China to Sri Lanka was diagnosed with corona symptoms and therefore was immediately sent to Quarantine.

	Pakistan	Bangladesh	Afghanistan	Sri Lanka
Total Cases	11940	4998	1463	452
Recovered	2755	113	188	118
Death Cases	253	140	47	7

Sri Lankan students struck in Wuhan were flown back to the home country and have been sent to their respective families, only after they completing the required quarantine time. The first case of Covid in Sri Lanka got registered after a tourist guide in Sri Lanka has been infected with the virus on March 10 from some Italian tourists. And post the same, from the 14th day of March itself, the government had imposed Curfew and lockdown measures in the country, which helped in containing the spread of the virus to a large extent.

Bangladesh

Severe Poverty-Topped up by the burden of Rohingya immigration

The population of Bangladesh is 16 crores. However there are just about 1,169 ICU beds available for any emergency in the country. That means less than one bed per a lakh of people! Another 150 are proposed to be setup by the end of the month.

With an increase of 1,155%, the corona virus is rapidly spreading its ugly sting across the country. This is the highest rate of dispersion of the virus in whole of Asia. The first Covid-19 case was reported on March 8th and the first death on the 18th day of the same month.

The government has been implementing the lockdown since March. The textile industry has been exempted from all sorts of restrictions, being the main source of economy for the country. There are allegations that less than 50,000 tests have only been done so far and also the death toll is not being announced in real terms. On the other hand, concerns are arising amongst the citizens that about 10 lakh of Rohingya refugee camps might become corona super spreaders.

Myanmar

Crisis Secrecy

Though China and Thailand, which are on either border of Myanmar are announcing a great crisis situation in their countries and a large number of positive cases and death toll is being reported, Myanmar proclaims to be affected in a very meager extent. There are allegations that the government is not doing enough tests and that the number of cases is being underestimated and also reported. However the government dismissed the allegations. The government further reminded that their way of lifestyle itself had been protecting them from the spread of this deadly virus.

In Myanmar, people generally do not shake each other’s hands, do not encourage hugging each other nor wet their tongue while counting currency notes. The government proclaims that such a lifestyle is practiced in their country since a long time even before the inception of corona affect. The first case in Myanmar was reported on March 23rd and the local government has implemented a lockdown in the respective district. The central government is making arrangements for people to follow social distance in the rest of the country.