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Comparing COVID-19 Pandemic Responses of Three South Asian Countries - Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh


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1 The Indian Practitioner; Physician and Healthcare Commentator, Mumbai, India
     

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South Asia has been hit hard economically by the COVID-19 pandemic, while apparently having done better in terms of mortality and morbidity than many Western countries. This article compares the COVID-19 responses of three South Asian countries, namely Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Robust and agile containment efforts along with spirited community cooperation appear to be the key ingredients for Bhutan’s success. Early implementation of lockdown and other measures along with rigorous tracing, testing, and isolation helped Sri Lanka limit much of its cases to clusters and quarantine centres. On the other hand, Bangladesh’s poorer performance can be explained with a weaker “trace, test, and treat” strategy, coupled with high population density and less effective implementation of control measures. While frank comparisons between countries are inaccurate given the differing contexts, useful insights can nonetheless emerge from comparative analyses of country responses.

Keywords

COVID-19, Coronavirus, South Asia, Pandemic Response, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh.
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  • Comparing COVID-19 Pandemic Responses of Three South Asian Countries - Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh

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Authors

Soham D. Bhaduri
The Indian Practitioner; Physician and Healthcare Commentator, Mumbai, India

Abstract


South Asia has been hit hard economically by the COVID-19 pandemic, while apparently having done better in terms of mortality and morbidity than many Western countries. This article compares the COVID-19 responses of three South Asian countries, namely Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Robust and agile containment efforts along with spirited community cooperation appear to be the key ingredients for Bhutan’s success. Early implementation of lockdown and other measures along with rigorous tracing, testing, and isolation helped Sri Lanka limit much of its cases to clusters and quarantine centres. On the other hand, Bangladesh’s poorer performance can be explained with a weaker “trace, test, and treat” strategy, coupled with high population density and less effective implementation of control measures. While frank comparisons between countries are inaccurate given the differing contexts, useful insights can nonetheless emerge from comparative analyses of country responses.

Keywords


COVID-19, Coronavirus, South Asia, Pandemic Response, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh.

References