COVID-19 response runs underground in junta-ruled
Myanmar
For a week, 21-year-old student Phoe Thar has been slotxo หน้าเว็บ out by dawn to
gather oxygen cylinders from the homes of coronavirus sufferers in Myanmar's second
city of Mandalay.
He and fellow volunteers line the tanks up outside charities for filling and returning,
trying to save lives in a country whose health system has largely collapsed since
a Feb 1 coup and which now faces its worst surge of COVID-19 infections.
Funded by donors on social media, Phoe Thar and his team are part of a growing
grassroots effort that bypasses the authorities and echoes the way Myanmar's people
responded to crises during previous decades of army rule.
"Since the number of people who need oxygen tanks is massive, it's a huge challenge
for us," Phoe Thar told Reuters by phone from Mandalay.
Health ministry figures showed deaths from COVID-19 reached a record 233 in
Myanmar on Saturday (Jul 17), but medics and funeral services say the real toll is
much higher, and crematoriums are overloaded.
The total official death toll has risen more than 40 per cent already this month to 4,769
with the spread of the Delta variant that has also surged elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
Reuters was unable to reach the health ministry or a junta spokesman for comment
on the outbreak and public response. A junta spokesman said last week there were
difficuties in fighting the outbreak and urged people to cooperate with the government.
The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the health minister,
Thet Khaing Win, held a meeting on Saturday "to accelerate the momentum"
in tackling COVID-19 - including through an increase in oxygen supplies.作者: martina28043 時間: 2021-7-20 20:17
