Much less affected so far than Western countries by the Covid-19 pandemic, the countries of Southeast Asia had been preparing, for months, their reopening in order to take full advantage of the economic recovery in the United States and Europe. . But the rapid spread of the Delta variant of the virus derails their plans.
Little or poorly vaccinated, several nations have decided to postpone the easing of movement restrictions on their territories or have even resolved, in recent days, to tighten them. “The number of new cases is high in Indonesia and the Philippines and has jumped in Thailand and, to a lesser extent, Vietnam. Even Singapore, the region’s leader in immunization, is struggling to contain small foci of infection, ”said Steve Cochrane, Moody’s Analytics chief economist for the Asia-Pacific region.
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