India has been getting the most dramatic front-page treatment around the globe for the deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through the country in April and May, which killed more than 180,000 in just two months. After a series of lockdowns, infections have tapered off and new cases declined. But the relief could be fleeting, according to the Associated Press, as a significant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots. This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy, particularly in India’s vast hinterlands, could put the country’s fragile gains against Covid-19 at risk. Only less than 5 percent of India’s people are fully immunized.
Now comes this alarming news that a surge in Covid infections dominated by the Delta variant is threatening Indonesia. As parts of the country explode with new infections and hospitalizations, health experts blamed the violation of health protocols in the spread of variants. At present 90 percent of ICU beds are filled.
From Bloomberg: Indonesia’s virus cases near 2 million as hospitals fill up. “The government confirmed 13,737 new cases on Sunday to bring the total to 1.99 million. Deaths have begun to pick up as the Covid-19 hospitalization rates exceed 70 percent in 87 cities across the country, with 371 people dying from the disease on Sunday. That’s the worst since April, according to government data.”
From the Associated Press: Portuguese authorities have confirmed suspicions that the new Delta variant of the coronavirus is driving a spike in new cases in the Lisbon region. Portugal’s National Health Institute said Sunday that the highly infectious variant that was first found in India has a prevalence of 60 percent of new cases in the nation’s capital. The recent surge in infections caused authorities last week to ban all travel in and out of Lisbon on the weekends. The measure went into effect on Friday. The Lisbon metropolitan area has around 2.8 million inhabitants.”
In the US, as infections go down and states reopen, the potential final stage in the US campaign to crush the virus is turning into a laborious effort, with a worrisome variant gaining a bigger foothold. From the Associated Press: The Delta variant has increased from 2.7 percent of all cases in May to 9.7 percent this month, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a call for governors on Monday, according to details provided by the Washington governor’s office. At the same time, states are convening focus groups to better understand who is declining to get vaccinated, why, and how to convince them that getting the shot is the right thing to do. “It’s a race between the vaccines going into people and the current or future variants,” said Kansas Health Secretary Dr. Lee Norman.
In the country, the Department of Health reported on Monday four new cases of the Covid-19 Delta variant, which is believed to be driving the surge in infections in India and Indonesia. The DOH said the Philippines currently has 17 cases of this virus type. Of the four new cases, three are returning overseas Filipinos from the crew ship MV Eastern Hope, which is currently docked in South Korea. The DOH said that upon testing positive for the virus, they were repatriated to the Philippines on June 3. The fourth case is an ROF from Saudi Arabia who arrived in Manila on May 24. Before leaving for the Philippines, the ROF from Saudi Arabia had a negative test result, but later tested positive after the required seventh-day testing upon arrival in Manila.
Let’s hope the DOH is right, that we only have 17 cases of the deadly and contagious Delta variant. Considering our proximity to Indonesia, we need to maintain restrictions for travelers and tighten enforcement of existing virus controls in our international gateways. It pays to be alert because complacency may endanger the whole country.