Young people line up to be vaccinated against Sinovac COVID-19 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, one of the Asian countries with vaccination rates currently among the best in the world.
Heng Sinith / AP
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Heng Sinith / AP
Young people line up to be vaccinated against Sinovac COVID-19 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, one of the Asian countries with vaccination rates currently among the best in the world.
Heng Sinith / AP
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) – When Cambodia started the army COVID-19 vaccines, lines lined the streets and people took off their shoes to save their shelter as they hid from the sun. But three months after its campaign, only 11% of the population had received at least one dose. In richer Japan, it took another two weeks to reach that level.
Now, both countries boast some of the best vaccination rates in the world. They are two of several countries in the Asia-Pacific region that started off slow in vaccination campaigns but have since surpassed the United States and many countries in Europe.
Countries with high rates include both richer and poorer ones, some with larger populations and some with smaller populations. But all have experience with infectious diseases, such as SARS, and robust vaccine procurement programs, many of which have known how to increase their risk by ordering from multiple manufacturers.
Most started vaccination relatively late due to complacency amid low infection rates, initial supply issues and other factors. But by the time they did, soaring death rates in the US, UK and India helped convince even skeptics to accept these efforts.
“I’m really worried, but we’re living under the threat of COVID-19 right now. There’s no choice but to get vaccinated,” said Rath Sreymom, who hastily brought her daughter, Nuth Nyra, 5. age, said. filmed when Cambodia opened the show for her age group this month.
Cambodia was one of the earliest countries in the region to begin a vaccination program with a kickoff on February 10 – still two months after the US and UK started the program. As elsewhere in the region, rollout has been slow, and in early May, when the delta variant began to spread rapidly, only 11% of its 16 million people had received at least the first theirs, according to Our World in Data. That’s about half the rate achieved in the US in the same time frame and a third in the UK.
Today Cambodia is 78% fully vaccinated – compared with 58% in the US. The country currently offers booster shots and is considering expanding its program to 3 and 4 year olds.
From the outset, it has seen strong demand for the vaccine, with the public rollout in April coinciding with a massive increase in cases in India, from which the dire images appeared about the cremation urns outside the crematorium.
Prime Minister Hun Sen has taken advantage of his close relationship with Beijing to buy nearly 37 million doses of medicine from China, some with aid. He declared last week that Cambodia’s “victory of vaccination” could not have happened without them. The country also receives large grants from the US, Japan, UK and from the international COVAX program.
However, it will take time to get enough supplies and many countries in the region that start their programs then face further difficulties, especially as the region’s major producer, India, suspends operations. vaccine exports only during the spring spike.
“It’s certainly important that local supplies are really important for those countries that have been doing exceptionally well,” said John Fleming, head of health for Asia and the Pacific at the Red Cross. “Then being present creates demand – obviously this is about getting people’s support and also reaching out to disadvantaged groups.”
Early in the pandemic, many Asian countries adopted strict lockdown and travel rules to largely contain the virus. When vaccines are deployed to become effective elsewhere, those low rates sometimes work against them, giving some the impression that vaccination is not urgent.
But as the toxic delta variant started making its way across the region, cases grew, encouraging people to sign up.
Some countries, like Malaysia, have gone to great lengths to ensure that even the most difficult-to-reach groups get vaccines. It has enlisted the help of the Red Cross to vaccinate people living illegally in the country and other groups who may be afraid to show up for government-sponsored vaccines.
“We have made vaccines accessible to everyone, no questions asked,” said Professor Sazaly Abu Bakar, Director of the Center for Tropical Infectious Diseases and Research Education. out.
Like Cambodia and Japan, Malaysia also struggled in the first three months, giving less than 5% of its 33 million people the first dose of the drug during that time, according to Our World in Data.
However, as cases surged, Malaysia bought more doses and set up hundreds of vaccination centres, including large ones capable of delivering up to 10,000 shots per day. Currently, the whole country has 76% of the population fully vaccinated.
To date, about a dozen countries in the Asia-Pacific region have vaccinated more than 70 percent of their populations or are on track to succeed, including Australia, China, Japan and Bhutan. In Singapore, 92% are fully vaccinated.
However, some countries in Asia continue to struggle. India celebrated the release of its billionth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in October, but with a population of nearly 1.4 billion, that is a complete vaccination rate of 29%. Indonesia started earlier than most but also stumbled, largely due to the challenge of expanding the campaign across the thousands of islands that make up its archipelago.
Japan’s vaccine program is notoriously slow – inching up while the world wonders if the country can host the Summer Olympics. It had to start until mid-February because it required additional clinical trials on Japanese people before the vaccine could be used – a move many criticized as unnecessary. It was also initially affected by supply issues.
But then it turned a corner. Then-Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga dispatched mid-level military personnel to operate mass vaccination centers in Tokyo and Osaka, and enacted legislation to allow dentists, medical staff and technicians Vaccination laboratory technician with doctors and nurses.
The number of daily doses given rose to about 1.5 million in July, and the country is now about 76% fully vaccinated. Makoto Shimoaraiso, the country’s senior official in charge of COVID-19 response, owes much of Japan’s success to the public response.
Many people in Japan are generally skeptical about vaccines, but after seeing the number of deaths soar around the world, that has ceased to be an issue.
In fact, retired Kiyoshi Goto is preparing for his next blow, as he cautiously considers rising cases in Europe.
The 75-year-old said: “I want a booster shot when our antibody levels are dropping.
In Phnom Penh, Nuth Nyra was delighted to meet her first child, saying she used to be afraid of COVID-19 – but not anymore.
The young girl spoke in a soft voice at a vaccination center on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital. “But I’m not crying.”
