Developing Nations Can’t Ease Up on Covid-19 Now
The emerging world may appear to have dodged a bullet but there is plenty of time for new waves of transmission to overwhelm leaky healthcare systems.
Migrant workers bore the brunt of India’s harsh lockdown.
Photographer: Money Sharma/AFP/Getty Images
As Europe braces for a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic that in parts of the continent looks to be more intensive than the first, it is tempting to assume that the developing world has gotten off lightly. In India, which has the world’s second-highest total of Covid-19 cases, the number of new infections has been trending downwards since September. Other large developing nations flattened their curves even earlier: Brazil peaked in August and South Africa in July.
Back in March, we would have gratefully accepted this outcome: There were very real and logical fears that once the virus began to spread in poorer countries in Asia and Africa, their limited healthcare systems would struggle far more than Italy’s and Spain’s. It looks as though the world has dodged a bullet.