GRIA: Global Resilience Initiative in Asia

As the virus threatens Southeast Asia, the spread of new variants continues to be a danger everywhere

After a devastating year with wave after wave of coronavirus infections around the world, new cases and deaths are falling in many of the Western nations that were once among the hardest hit. But while the virus recedes in wealthy nations with robust vaccination campaigns, it is pummeling India and threatening to swamp Southeast Asian countries that until now had largely kept the virus at bay.

Taken together, the opposing regional trends add up to a leveling of global daily new cases at “an unacceptably high plateau” that leaves the world in continuing danger, the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Monday.

In Southeast Asia, Dr. Tedros noted that “cases and deaths are still increasing rapidly.”

Factbox-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus The World Trade Organization said risks from the uneven roll-out of coronavirus vaccination campaigns and the possible emergence of vaccine-resistant strains clouded the outlook for the global trade in goods, while raising its growth forecast slightly. Reuters Staff U.S.

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* All health workers in Italy must have coronavirus jabs, the government said, in a potentially controversial move aimed at protecting vulnerable patients and pushing back against ‘no-vax’ sentiment.