COVID-19: A tale of two pandemics across the Asia Pacific region

Abstract

The widely diverse impacts of SAR-CoV-2 infection resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be held in more stark relief when contrasting the devastating impact upon China, Italy, Great Britain, America and Brazil with the considerably milder course in the geographically isolated countries of Australia and New Zealand and the densely populated Vietnam. Children in the Asia-Pacific region, as with children all over the world to date, have fared better than older adults. Other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Indonesia and India have struggled to deal with the pandemic because of a lack of health infrastructure, inability to provide sufficient testing and isolation and widespread poverty. This article will provide a snapshot of the impact of COVID-19 upon countries in the Asia-Pacific region in the six months since the first case of the novel zoonotic coronavirus infection appeared in China.