Asia ratchets up fight against COVID-19 as virus cases resurge

Summary

• As of 18 November 2020, Asia has 9.8 million ‘reported’ cases and 161,000 deaths.
• Countries are now trying their best to control the spread of the virus and heal those that are already infected.
• Restricted or complete lockdown is one of the most important as well as prime quarantine strategies followed by countries to control the exploding infection.

The Covid-19 pandemic originated in Asia in Wuhan, China and spread across the world. The first cases of Covid-19 were reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019. These cases reported in Wuhan were the first Covid-19 cases to be reported globally and because the reason was unknown then, these cases were considered to of pneumonia with unknown cause. Though, the causative agent was labelled as a novel coronavirus, later named SARS-CoV-2 on 7 January 2020.

Fight against the disease

According to Global Health network, as of 18 November 2020, Asia registered 9.8 million ‘reported’ cases and 161,000 deaths. Except Turkmenistan and North Korea, all countries in Asia have reported Covid-19 cases.

However, since November, week wise cases of corona have stabilised. Weekly deaths have also remained stable. The countries with biggest number of cases per million population in the last week featured Nepal, Maldives and India.

India marks the highest number of cases and deaths in the region followed by Indonesia which registered the second highest number of cases.  According to MoHFW, India has recorded 91,39,865 reported confirmed cases with 1,33,738 reported deaths as on 23 Nov at 08:00 AM IST.

Countries are now trying their best to control the spread of the virus and heal those who are already infected. However, the way people in Asian countries respond to the disease, varies hugely. Restricted or complete lockdown is one of the most important strategies followed by countries to control the exploding infection.

Lockdowns – Touted as the word of the year, lockdown is a large-scale physical distancing measure involving restricted movements. Lockdown emerged as the best way to limit contact among people and slow down the spread of Covid-19.  This emergency protocol implemented by the authorities forced people to remain indoors and there were penalties imposed if they were found outside without purpose.

China was the forerunner in ordering a lockdown in Wuhan along with other several provinces around it. A number of questions were raised on the effectiveness of the strategy. But it worked and was then followed by other countries.

Measures taken by the governments – The governing authorities of all the nations had to come forward and take immediate actions to curb the spread. The Asian countries where the infection was not that rife made sure their people remained safe and free of the virus. Successful shutdowns all over were the proof that people themselves did not want to get infected and followed what the governments asked them to do.

Why Asia has a significant number of the Covid-19 cases

Population explosion – The unprecedented change in the human population can be regarded as the most significant reason towards significant number of the Covid-19 cases in Asia. Almost 60% of the world’s population lives in this zone. As per the records of the World Bank, around 200 million people moved to urban areas in East of Asia during the first decade of the 21^st century. That suggests that around 200 million people could form the eighth most populous country in the world.

Now, this prompts that when human migration takes place at this level, forests are destroyed to create residential areas. The wildlife is forced to get closer to human habitats and often have encounters with household animals and even human beings sometimes. Wild animals harbour viruses and viruses then are transferred to different species. This eventually can infect people.

Ultimately, the intense urbanisation becomes a savage cycle. More and more gentry bring in even more deforestation and human expansion. Loss of animal habitat wipes off predators, including those who feed off rodents. With predators gone or even their numbers down, the rodent population explodes.

The situation is said to turn only worse as a major proportion of Asia’s population still thrives in rural regions and therefore, the urbanisation is expected to continue.

Animal farming and markets – Asiatic regions, rich in hosting biodiversity hold huge pools of pathogens. This increases the chances of new pathogens being born. Many families in different countries of Asia depend upon livestock farming as well and disease control, feed supplementation and housing for those animals is very limited. Cattle, chicken, pigs, animals that mainly carry the endemic disease, come in close contact with humans many times.  

Also, many live animal markets have crowded conditions that might trigger production of pathogens.

Other than this, bushmeat hunting and butchering also bring people and wild animals together.

Conclusion

The viruses will continue to evolve. Virus outbreaks too will continue to happen. The Covid-19 virus is said to have come from bats to another animal before infecting human beings. It is quite challenging to exactly learn the chain of events causing a pandemic. But one thing is for sure, that these risks can be mitigated by making strategies to lessen the human effects which contribute to the ecological imbalances.

The current pandemic has demonstrated a situation like never before wherein a disease starts in one part of the world and spreads on a global level in such a short span of time. A comprehensive surveillance system to monitor the development of these diseases is needed to help fight these deadly and terrifying epidemics.