Services at public hospitals collapsed after many doctors and nurses joined strikes in a Civil Disobedience Movement in the forefront of opposition to military rule - and sometimes on the frontline of protests that have been bloodily suppressed.
Neither a junta spokesman nor the health ministry responded to requests for comment. The junta, which initially set fighting the pandemic as one of its priorities, has repeatedly urged medics to return to work. Few have responded.A worker at one COVID-19 quarantine centre in Myanmar's commercial capital, Yangon, said all the specialist health workers there had joined the Civil Disobedience Movement.
Myanmar has reported more than 3,200 COVID-19 deaths from over 140,000 cases, although the slump in testing has raised doubts over data that shows new cases and deaths have largely plateaued since the coup. "It's very concerning that COVID-19 testing, treatment and vaccinations are extremely limited in Myanmar as more lives are at risk with new, more dangerous variants spreading," said Luis Sfeir-Younis, Myanmar COVID-19 operations manager for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.Twenty-four cases have been identified in Cikha, said Lun Za En. Seven were so serious they needed hospitalisation - a sign of how few cases had likely been detected.
"It is not clear how this will be resolved, unless there is a resolution at the political level addressing the political conflict," said Jost.
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