Economies on the brink due to Covid, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam mulling to reopen borders

Pushed on the brink due to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the tourism industry, the governments of Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, are mulling to open their borders and public spaces for foreign tourists.

According to Reuters, Vietnam plans to reopen the resort island of Phu Quoc to foreign tourists starting next month. The tourism minister, Nguyen Van Hung, said the pandemic had “seriously hurt” the tourism industry.

The decision comes as only 6.3 per cent of Vietnam’s 98 million people have received at least two shots.

Foreign arrivals to Vietnam slumped from 18 million in 2019, when tourism revenue was $31 billion, or nearly 12% of its gross domestic product, to 3.8 million last year.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh conceded that Vietnam was facing a lengthy battle against the coronavirus, which has infected over 5,70,000 people and killed 14,400, so could not just rely on lockdowns and quarantine.

Neighbouring Thailand has also announced its intentions to reopen Bangkok and other major destinations to foreign tourists by October, while hoping to revive its tourism industry, which accounted for more than 11% of the country's GDP in 2019,according to Reuters.

So far, only 22% of the estimated 72 million people living in Thailand have been fully vaccinated, according to local media reports.

Indonesia, which has inoculated more than 16% of its population, has also eased its restrictions, allowing public spaces to reopen, and permitting factories to return to its full capacity.

Foreign tourists might be allowed into certain parts of the country, including the resort island Bali, by October, according toReuters.

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There are many Southeast Asian nations who have been planning to open their borders as Covid-induced lockdown continue to cripple their economies.

However, there have been concerns among the health activities as the island nations have been struggling to inoculate their population owing to short supply of Covid vaccines, and their over-reliance on Chinese-made vaccines—which showed lower efficacy than those made by Western and Indian companies.

Brazilian trials have shown that Sinovac has about 50% efficacyagainst symptomatic Covid-19, and 100% effectiveness against severe disease, according to trial data submitted to WHO.

Sinopharm, another vaccine from China, has an efficacy of about 79% for symptomatic and hospitalized disease,according to WHO.

According toDuke University,Thailand has bought more than 40 million doses of the Sinovac drug, while the Philippines and Malaysia have around 20 million each. Cambodia has bought another 16 million.

Meanwhile, Indonesia has bought 15 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, while Malaysia has got another 5 million.

Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the US-based Council on Foreign Relations think tank, told CNN that if vaccination rates aren’t high enough with high-efficacy vaccines before restrictions are lifted, health care systems in Southeast Asia could quickly become overwhelmed.

“You're going to see this spike of severe cases then it's going to overwhelm the ICU ... beds, ventilators, there's going to be a shortage capacity challenge,” he was said quoted as saying.

(With inputs from agencies)