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Coronavirus pandemic
This Week in AsiaHealth & Environment

Coronavirus second wave: which Asian countries are most at risk?

  • Some Asian countries are seeing new Covid-19 outbreaks as they reopen battered economies
  • But experts say that while many are now better equipped to handle new clusters, those with ongoing local transmissions are still at risk

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A cashier wears a face mask while serving a customer in Sydney on June 17, 2020. Photo: Reuters
Maria Siow
A new outbreak of the coronavirus in China has sent ripples of fear through the world of a second wave of infections, especially in countries that have had some success in controlling the pandemic and are moving ahead to reopen their battered economies.
Several Asian countries that have eased restrictions and resumed some level of economic activity, including Australia, Japan and South Korea, have in the last month reported new outbreaks numbering in the tens to a few dozens.
Capital cities have been the sites of most infections, partly due to their high human traffic. China’s second outbreak is centred in Beijing, with at least 184 new cases reported since last week, as authorities cancelled scores of domestic flights, banned outbound travel and imposed a partial lockdown.

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Salmon import ban and partial lockdown for Beijing after new Covid-19 cases in Chinese capital

Salmon import ban and partial lockdown for Beijing after new Covid-19 cases in Chinese capital
On the prospect of dealing with the second wave of the coronavirus, experts generally agree that regional governments appear to be better prepared to cope after the substantive experience they have gathered tackling the initial outbreak of the pandemic.

However, analysts also point out that challenges remain, especially in maintaining vigilance and ensuring that small clusters are swiftly contained so they will not morph into bigger and more uncontrollable infections.

Paul Ananth Tambyah, president of the Asia-Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, said countries and communities most at risk of a second wave were those with ongoing cases of local transmission, with daily numbers in the hundreds or thousands.

“Although it could be argued that this is still the tail end of the first wave, there are likely to be multiple chains of transmission in those countries which have not been cut off,” Tambyah said.

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