Bangkok, July 8, (dpa/GNA) – Five months after the military coup in Myanmar, the crisis-stricken country is battling its worst wave of the coronavirus so far.
The Health Ministry reported a record number of nearly 4,000 new infections and 57 deaths linked to Covid-19 in its latest figures – but it is feared that the true numbers are much higher.
One of the biggest problems is people’s distrust of the state health system, which is now run by the junta.
Many people do not even want to be tested, doctors say. In addition, many doctors and nurses are refusing to work for the new military leadership.
Myanmar has been plunged into violence and chaos since a coup on February 1.
The junta brutally suppresses all resistance, and thousands of opponents have already been arrested.
The few private hospitals are completely overloaded.
“The hospitals are always full. So even if you are not feeling well, a private hospital cannot treat you properly if there is no bed for you,” a doctor who owns a private clinic in Yangon said by phone.
Tests are hardly being done any more, he said. “There are problems if the result is positive and there are no beds for the patients.”
Even before the coup, Myanmar didn’t have a good health system. “Now it is getting worse as health care has failed and the economy is collapsing because of the coup,” he said.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since the coup, has already been fully vaccinated, said one of her lawyers, Min Min Soe.
According to statistics from the Our World in Data site, only about 3 per cent of the 54 million inhabitants have received at least one vaccination dose so far.
A total of 176,000 cases and 3,570 deaths have been confirmed so far in connection with Covid-19.
GNA