Delta Varant brings disaster to countries stuck waiting for Covid-19 vaccines

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SINGAPORE – The rapidly spreading delta type of coronavirus has led to an increase in infection worldwide, both in countries that have achieved widespread vaccination and those that have not. There is one key difference, however: Vaccines help rich countries escape the spike in cases and severe deaths, while developing countries that lack the shots struggle with deadly increases.

Indonesia, where Covid-19 cases have reached new highs, has reported about 500 deaths a day in the past week – nearly three times the daily levels recorded in early June – Health Ministry data shows. Authorities are racing to add hospital beds as medical workers in parts of the country face shortages of ventilators and isolation rooms. Patients travel for hours to get proper medical care and recently set up emergency tents at the site to accommodate the influx, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which operates a hospital in West Java province, said.

“Every day we see this delta type driving Indonesia closer to the brink of a Covid-19 catastrophe,” Jan Gelfand, who leads the group’s delegation in the country, said recently. “We need to take swift action globally so that countries like Indonesia can get the necessary vaccines to avoid tens of thousands of deaths.”

In the UK, by contrast, the variable is dominant and pushed daily cases reported by 67% in the past week compared to the previous week, but deaths fell by 1.6%, government data shows. Israel, another wealthy country with high levels of vaccination, has reported small new outbreaks but only one death in the last two weeks of June, according to WHO data. Vaccines are effective against it, says Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US, where the variant is most prevalent. “If you look at the proportion of the population that’s fully vaccinated in the United States and around the world, they are dramatically different, and so are the dynamics of the infection,” he said.

This difference is the result of months of uneven supply of vaccines that have left the developing world exposed. The United States and the United Kingdom have fully vaccinated half of their population, but across the African continent, just over 1% of people have been fully vaccinated. Mortuaries in Zambia are full and patients are dying in hospital corridors in South Africa while waiting for care.

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