It appears that some health care system and other leaders think that the problem of transmission of the virus is simply due to misbehaviour.

Jamie

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Myanmar Government Under Fire as Coronavirus Cases Top 90,000
Radio Free Asia
2020-12-01

Myanmar’s government is facing growing criticism from physicians and experts over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic as the country’s number of cases surpassed 90,000 for the first time Tuesday and the health crisis continued to hammer the Southeast Asian region in recent weeks.

Maw Maw Oo, a senior emergency physician at the Yangon General Hospital, told RFA’s Myanmar Service that the government must institute measures to more seriously contain the spread of the virus, which has now infected 92,189 people and is spreading to thousands of people daily.

The doctor added that medical staff at the facility are “exhausted” from the long fight working to save patients suffering from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

“Amid the prolonged pandemic, medical staff are becoming overburdened,” he said Tuesday.

“In some cases, they are forced to take long shifts with no time off, working day and night. Many feel disheartened. If the government doesn’t contain the virus effectively, hospital and clinics will not be able to handle the load. It will become a disaster if medical staff become exhausted and can no longer work.”

According to Myanmar’s Ministry of Health and Sports, more than 1,000 medical staff have been infected so far, leading to “several deaths.”

The ministry recently issued an order banning gatherings of more than 30 people, but members of the public are not adhering to the decree strictly enough, observers say, and the number of new cases has yet to decrease. So far, hospitals have been able to keep up with the number of patients, but it is unclear how long they will be able to do so.

Phyo Thiha, a physician and author, told RFA that authorities only talk about containment measures, “but don’t enforce them,” and tend to ignore large gatherings.

“Medical staff are the only ones shouldering the burden of the new incoming cases,” he said.

“It is concerning that non-COVID patients no longer receive enough attention. The government needs to change its policies with regards to handling the virus. It needs to create a new policy to reduce the workload of medical staff, instead of admitting every confirmed patient to the hospital.”

But Than Min Htut, the head of Pathein Hospital, in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy region, warned against adopting a policy of self-quarantining for people infected with the virus who aren’t in high-risk categories.

“In other countries, positive patients who are ordered to quarantine at home actually follow through, but our patients rarely follow orders,” he said.

“The system of quarantining at home depends on how well the people comply. If they don’t follow through, it could make the situation worse.”

Than Min Htut said there are more than 2,800 confirmed cases in the Irrawaddy region and that his hospital is treating 60 of 380 patients in Pathein alone.

The physician advised that the government enforce restrictions to prevent more cases, rather than implementing policies on which patients should be prioritized for hospital stays.

“If we have to take on more patients, we will have several problems—we are now reaching the limit,” he said.

“We also have a shortage of equipment. We are doing the best we can based on the current availability of equipment but in the case of a mass arrival of new patients, not all of them will have access to it.”

In addition to equipment shortages, medical facilities throughout the country are dealing with a lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), he added.

A spokesman for Myanmar’s Ministry of Health said Tuesday that his agency is “working with experts to control the situation” and that each country is entitled to “fight the pandemic in its own way.”

In addition to the tens of thousands of positive cases, Myanmar reported 1,972 deaths from the virus as of Tuesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The government on Monday extended a suspension on domestic flights until Dec. 15 and on international flights until Dec. 31. International flights have been grounded since March 19 in order to control the spread of the virus.
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https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/coronavirus-12012020182205.html