Overwhelmed By The Third Wave Of COVID-19, Myanmar's Military Regime Asks For International Help

Ilustrasi COVID-19. (Wikimedia Commons / Mstyslav Chernov)

JAKARTA - Myanmar's military regime authorities are seeking help from the international community to contain the coronavirus, state media said Wednesday (July 28), as the third wave of COVID-19 rocked the country.

Myanmar's health system, which has been reeling since the military coup on February 1, due to protests by medical staff against the coup, is under intense pressure from the third wave of COVID-19 without adequate equipment.

Stay-at-home orders issued by Myanmar's military regime have failed to stop a spike in COVID-19 infections, with queues at cemeteries and crematoriums reflecting the plight of the pandemic in Myanmar. Citing CNA Wednesday, July 28, Myanmar military regime leader Min Aung Hlaing at a coordination meeting to enhance cooperation with the international community said Myanmar should raise money from the COVID-19 response fund set up by ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).

Efforts to fulfill this are underway to work with ASEAN, as well as seek help from friendly countries, the regime-affiliated Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported, without providing details.

With new daily infections at under 5,000 on Wednesday, up from around 50 a day in early May, many analysts believe Myanmar's COVID-19 toll is actually much higher.

As part of the response, some 1.75 million people have so far been vaccinated according to the military-established State Administration Council (SAC), as the military regime calls it, out of Myanmar's total population of 54 million.

Last week a number of donated doses of Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine arrived from China, junta authorities said, but they will be prioritized for those living along the China-Myanmar border.

China has also supplied more than 10,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to the civil resistance operating near its southern border in Myanmar, as Beijing tries to stop the influx of refugees from the coup-torn country.

Previously, the military regime said it ordered about four million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from China earlier this month. In addition, Beijing is also said to be donating two million more doses to Myanmar.

The Myanmar Coup. VOI editors continue to monitor the political situation in one of the ASEAN member countries. Civilian casualties continued to fall. Readers can follow news about the Myanmar military coup by tapping this link.