Queue at an oxygen filling station in Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo: AP / NTB
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Large costs
This is the second major shutdown in Malaysia in less than a year. Authorities say it will be maintained until the number of infected is below 4,000 daily, and at least 10 percent are vaccinated.
But the costs to society are great. The economic crisis is getting worse with each passing day, dozens of companies are popping up and thousands are losing their jobs.
Before the weekend, Vietnam also introduced stricter restrictions. Ho Chi Minh City was almost completely shut down for two weeks, which hit the country’s economic and financial center hard. The city’s nine million people are only allowed to go out to buy food and medicine, as well as perform other critical chores.
In the first year, Vietnam managed to limit the death toll to 2,800, and no new cases of infection were reported in the first three months of the year.
But then the numbers rose rapidly. In the last two months, 22,000 new cases of infection have been registered. Only 4 percent of the population has received one dose, but the government hopes it will be able to vaccinate 70 percent of the country’s 96 million people by the end of the year.
The worst over
In India, where the delta variant was first discovered, the traumatic period in April and May has been replaced by a period in the hope that the worst is over. Earlier this year, India experienced an almost galloping spread of sky-high death tolls, overcrowded hospitals that ran out of beds and oxygen, and crematoria that ran out of firewood for cremation.
Now the number of infected and dead is falling, but only 5 percent are fully vaccinated. The authorities are struggling to distribute vaccines, at the same time as temporary hospitals are being built in the districts and the stocks of oxygen are being replenished.
Japan and Australia have also introduced new restrictions. The world is paying close attention to what is happening in Japanese society, where the Olympic Summer Games will be held later this month.
Before the weekend, the authorities decided that the exercises should be carried out completely without the audience in the arenas.
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