With Covid-19 fatalities during the pandemic’s third wave in Arakan State rising to 31 on Friday, it appeared likely that by the weekend’s end the death toll would surpass the statewide total, 37, of the first two waves of the virus combined.
The third-wave infection rate is soaring and the need for scarce medical oxygen continues to grow, said the assistant director of the state’s Department of Public Health, Dr. Soe Win Paing, explaining the lethal combination of factors that is plaguing Arakan State and much of the rest of Myanmar.
“Most of the deaths are patients with underlying diseases,” Dr. Soe Win Paing told DMG.
Saw San Nyein Thu, chair of the Rakhine Women’s Initiative Organization, noted the beleaguered state of the healthcare system and cited a lack of compliance and enforcement of Covid-19 preventive regulations as contributing to the crisis.
“Authorities from the state government having a weakness on prevention activities is one of the factors in the rise of the death toll. We [the public] are asked to provide help for medicines and Covid-19 prevention supplies because hospitals do not have enough medicines and supplies. So, authorities need to manage these issues,” she said.
Myanmar’s healthcare system has been stretched to the breaking point as Covid-19 infections rise to unprecedented highs amid a civil disobedience movement (CDM) in protest of the military regime and its February 1 coup. The CMD has included many hospital staff across the country who have refused to work for the junta.
Saw San Nyein Thu said it is concerning that the Covid-19 death toll is rising in Arakan State, adding that people should resist the disease with unity.
“If possible, we all stay at home for two weeks. During that time, those people who can afford to donate should provide food for the needy. This is not a time to think for our own self-interest. If we keep going like this, the situation will be worse and people will die before they should die,” she said.
Beginning with an uptick in cases nationally toward the end of May, the third wave of coronavirus infections has dwarfed the previous two in a matter of weeks. Other countries in the region are facing similar surges.
As of Friday evening, a total of 1,255 coronavirus cases, 31 deaths and 313 people discharged from hospitals were reported since the third wave began in Arakan State. The state’s first third-wave fatality was recorded in Sittwe on June 28.
