The Covid-19 Delta variant which first wreaked devastation in India is ripping through countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia that had escaped the worst of the pandemic till now and pushing healthcare systems to the breaking point. It’s even rearing its head in Vietnam and China, where rigidly tight restrictions had almost eliminated the virus.

Exacerbating the problem is the highly transmissible nature of the Delta variant and, in many cases, slow vaccine rollouts, largely due to a lack of vaccines. There are also dire shortages of hospital beds, oxygen and equipment in different parts of the region.

The hardest hit has been Indonesia where 100,600 people have died totally – 40,000 of these deaths have occurred since July 1, which indicates soaring mortality rates since being struck by the Delta variant. The country of 276 million people which has become the epicentre of Asia’s Covid-19 outbreak had a record 56,567 cases on July 15, though that number has come down to around 22,000. It’s been struggling to treat critically ill patients due to a lack of oxygen. In Indonesia, as in India, just 8 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated.

The urgent need to step up vaccination in Asia and around the world was highlighted by just-released Indonesian health ministry data which showed that the Covid-19 death rate for people in Jakarta who were not double-vaccinated was more than triple those who were.

"We need an urgent reversal from the majority of vaccines going to high-income countries to the majority going to low-income countries," said World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom, also calling for a halt to COVID-19 boosters until more people get their first and second vaccine jabs.

Thailand, which had nearly eliminated Covid-19 and started to open the Phuket resort island to tourists, has become another virus hotspot and has just notched up a record 20,200 cases in a day. A government spokesman warned these were distributed throughout the country, not just in Bangkok. Thailand’s latest cases are both the highly infectious Delta and also the Alpha variants.

It’s a similar story in Malaysia, with a population of only 32 million which has just reported 19,819 cases, a record high and where the numbers are showing no sign of declining. Until it was slammed by the Delta variant, Malaysia had been doing so well the government had published a book outlining how it had tackled the virus.

Closer home, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are both facing huge upsurges triggered by the Delta variant after escaping lightly last year. Since early July, Bangladesh has had more than 200 deaths daily and hospital facilities are in danger of being overwhelmed with 90 per cent of ICU beds already occupied.

Bangladesh moved to impose a lockdown late and then compounded this failure by loosening controls around Eid. The situation’s getting worse because factory workers who had headed back to their villages have now returned to the major cities. “If we are to break the transmission chain, we have to either maintain the health safety guidelines or vaccinate a large number of people,” said a Bangladesh doctor.

Sri Lanka, which now has around 27,000 active cases had its first Delta variant case in Colombo but this has now spread to all provinces. The island nation of 21 million people has suffered 4,508 deaths.

Even Vietnam which has imposed strict lockdowns in the capital Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in the south in an attempt to contain the virus, reported over 8,000 fresh infections on Wednesday compared to fewer than 1,000 daily till July 4. Vietnam’s anti-Covid-19 measures were amongst the world’s most successful and it was able to keep the number of daily infections in single digits from April 2020 to March this year. With just 0.6 per cent of its 96 million population fully vaccinated, the government is facing strong pressure to step up the inoculation rate.

Similarly, China, which had virtually stamped out the virus with a mix of tightly enforced control zones and by conducting millions of tests a week, is suddenly fighting outbreaks in 14 provinces. Hit by the Delta variant, China has reported 500 cases since mid-July across these provinces though there are considerable doubts about the accuracy of Chinese figures and suggestions that the numbers may be more. The first Delta variant cases are reported to have arrived on a Russian plane from Moscow to Nanjing which had seven infected passengers.

What’s certain is that China has thrown every resource at its disposal into the anti-Covid battle, ordering the testing of all 12 million inhabitants in Wuhan where the infections first began and which has now seven reported cases. In other cities, it has ordered tight micro-lockdowns in certain areas.

Myanmar, too, is facing a crisis compounded by the fact that many doctors have been arrested by the military government. The February coup has meant that only 40 per cent of the healthcare system is functioning, according to the UN, and vaccinations have come to a halt. People are desperately lining up for oxygen for patients, reports say. After the army seized control in February, thousands of protesters flooded into the streets to oppose the coup resulting in the virus’ spread. Thai newspapers are calling for a UN-backed medical rescue mission for Myanmar.

In the Philippines, the government has extended a night curfew in Metro Manila after it had over 8,700 cases on Sunday. In Cebu province hospitals are reported to be overwhelmed by the deluge of cases.

The inability to buy vaccines has complicated the situation in many of these countries where vaccination rates have stayed at low levels. In Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand, far fewer than a fifth of the people have received even one jab. Vietnam seems to have been counting on its rigorously effective test-and-trace system to crush the virus as barely 5 per cent of the population have received their first vaccination dose. It’s at the bottom of the vaccination list in both Southeast Asia and East Asia, though there are no reliable figures available for North Korea.

Indonesia is now stepping up its vaccination drive and aims to deliver 2 million doses a day. The country, which needs over 400 million doses, now has about 178 million. A number of these are from Chinese firms like Sinovac and Sinopharm which many Western researchers have judged to be less effective than the vaccines by such companies as Pfizer or Moderna. In fact, the scientist leading the Sinovac trial in Indonesia just died of suspected coronavirus. Indonesia is one of the few countries in the region with vaccine-making capacity and, in fact, India imports some vaccines from the Indonesians. The Delta variant has spread to all of Indonesia’s provinces and islands.

Anger is growing against Thailand’s military-backed government which has made many missteps in the last three months including deciding that politicians, bureaucrats and other privileged segments of society would receive vaccinations before frontline health workers and high-risk people. Restrictions like night curfews are now in force in 16 districts.