cover image: ISSUE: 2021 No. 67     - Singapore | 11 May 2021

20.500.12592/jtf792

ISSUE: 2021 No. 67 - Singapore | 11 May 2021

11 May 2021

In a social media post that went viral last month, Myanmar’s anti-coup netizens took stock of the two compounding crises they faced: “In the first 60 days of COVID-19 in Myanmar, there were just six fatalities, whereas, in the first 60 days of the military coup, 573 people were killed.”2 The coup thus having caused 95 times the number of deaths compared to Covid-19, the post’s creator, The Insight. [...] MYANMAR’S UNEXPECTED COVID-19 SUCCESS Experts had expected the pandemic to cripple the country’s long-neglected healthcare system, which, as recently as 2000, was ranked by the World Health Organization as the world’s worst.5 While healthcare in Myanmar had improved under the National League for Democracy (NLD),6 at the start of the pandemic, dire statistics underscored the healthcare system’s lac. [...] The inter-ministerial coordination across sectors was impressive, given that it was the first time the government had approached a problem like this.”16 This general agreement on the former government’s success is precisely why Myanmar’s COVID-19 response has emerged as a locus of activism and, equally, a focus of military attention in the aftermath of the coup. [...] 1.28 While healthcare workers lined up to receive the vaccine at the end of January, they refused to receive their second doses following the coup.29 Recent reports estimate that Myanmar has now purchased 30 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, but the rollout continues to face challenges.30 In late February, the director of the nation’s immunisation campaign, Dr. [...] “I wasn’t sure that the vaccinations would be kept at the required temperature, and I wasn’t confident in the management of the Ministry of Health and Sports since many staff has been on strike since the coup.
Pages
9
Published in
Singapore