How do Southeast Asian countries fight the pandemic, produce and circulate goods during Covid-19?

Cambodia divides epidemic areas by color

In Cambodia, after achieving impressive results in reducing the number of infections, the country is facing a serious new outbreak when the Delta variant penetrates and spreads rapidly.

To control the epidemic as soon as possible, the Cambodian government has divided the epidemic areas into "red", "dark yellow" and "yellow" according to the risk of infection from high to low. After days of curfew, the capital Phnom Penh and some localities have switched to lockdown and applied many drastic measures.

Since April 23, all state-run and spontaneous markets in Phnom Penh have been closed. In the "red" zone, all types of small businesses and retail trade, including those providing food and other necessities, have stopped operating. Due to difficulties in transporting and supplying goods from outside, food prices have increased. To solve this problem, the Cambodian Ministry of Industry and Trade has announced a fixed price list for six essential goods - including rice, instant noodles, canned fish, fish sauce, soy sauce, and bottled water.

The ministry has also deployed online assistance, used food trucks and set up dozens of stalls in red zone locations to meet demand. Private trucking company Virak Buntham has been granted permission to deploy 64 trucks as "mobile markets" to distribute food.

Meanwhile, the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries issues certificates or passes to facilitate traders to transport food into the blockaded area.

On the public side, people living in the locked-down area are prohibited from leaving their homes except in cases of emergency. Each family is only allowed to go out to buy food a maximum of 3 days a week and 2 people take turns doing the shopping.

Singapore flexes vaccination strategy

According to BBC, Singapore has prepared a plan to "live with Covid-19" carefully and cautiously, considering all three factors: Politics, Economics and Science. When implementing this long-term plan, the government has shown flexibility, promptly adjusting strategic decisions to suit reality.

The island nation soon realized that vaccination, herd immunity, or at least coexistence with the virus, was the ultimate goal. In a live broadcast at the end of 2020, the Singaporean Prime Minister revealed that he had set up a specialized agency and spent more than 1 billion Singapore dollars since April 2020 to have access to, own, and bring in the necessary vaccines as early as 2020.

On that basis, the Singapore government has deployed Covid-19 vaccination quite quickly, with reasonable allocation and no chaos. The government has notified each population group to come for vaccination at a specific time, registering in advance for the vaccination date and time via an application installed on smartphones or the Ministry of Health's website.

To vaccinate effectively, authorities group residents by age, not location, based on the idea that the risk of severe disease increases with age.

When the fast-spreading Delta variant emerged, Singapore quickly changed its vaccination strategy. From a plan to administer two doses in a centralized manner, the government switched to mass vaccination to increase the number of people protected. Then, the government returned to a strategy of group vaccination.

Thailand: Mildly ill people are allowed to self-isolate at home

In Thailand, authorities allow people with mild or asymptomatic infections to self-isolate at home or in local quarantine facilities. Those linked to outbreak chains are advised to quarantine at community facilities.

People are also encouraged to use antigen testing kits for home testing. This makes it easier for infected people to detect the disease so they can be isolated and treated early, while avoiding long queues at testing facilities, thereby reducing pressure on the health system.

People can buy the kits at hospitals, government agencies and drug stores. An official from the Thai Food and Drug Administration said authorities are trying to keep the price of rapid tests, which are less accurate than RT-PCR tests, at around 100 baht ($3.06).

Thailand mainly uses RT-PCR tests, but scenes of long queues at testing facilities in the epicentre of the outbreak in Bangkok have prompted authorities to reassess their methods of tracing cases.

Thailand also plans to reimburse Covid-19 patients for treatment at home, at 1,100 baht (about $33) per day for up to two weeks. They will also be reimbursed by the government for expenses such as medicine, testing, travel, or symptoms such as low red blood cell counts or blood clots after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine.

Indonesia: Launching a series of agricultural programs

Despite being devastated by the pandemic, Indonesia has maintained the growth of its agricultural sector in recent times.

At the 2021 Agriculture and Food Summit on August 3, Indonesian Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto said that in 2020, agriculture contributed 1.75% of the country's GDP and in the first quarter of 2021, the figure jumped to 2.95% of GDP.

According to Mr. Airlangga, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought about numerous problems of poverty, unemployment, inequality, and has seriously affected food security. However, anticipating the situation, the Indonesian government has implemented many programs in the agricultural sector, such as building production zones and implementing food zone projects in Central Kalimantan and North Sumatra.

There, farmers are grouped together in the form of cooperatives for easy access to finance as well as coordination with supply and distribution businesses.

The One Village One Product initiative also facilitates the application of technology and certification. The logistics system combined with cold storage helps farmers best preserve their products, whether on or off the farm.

Another program to boost agricultural production is to develop export-oriented horticulture to increase farmers' income. Specifically, investors provide high-quality seeds, support the packaging process, while the government provides financial and export support to improve the competitiveness of horticultural products.