The Latest in Southeast Asia: March 4, 2021

Over a year into the global Covid-19 pandemic, responding to the crisis remains the top concern of every government in Southeast Asia. But how they are doing so, and what resources they bring to the table, vary widely. This is perhaps best evidenced by recent developments in Cambodia and Singapore.
 
Cambodia
 
Cambodia is experiencing its largest surge in cases to date. On February 20, the government declared a new outbreak in the capital Phnom Penh. Since then, schools, gyms, entertainment venues, and other businesses across the country have been forced to closed as the cumulative number of confirmed cases has nearly doubled.
 
For a small country with limited resources, Cambodia has so far done an impressive job of containing the spread of the pandemic. Much of that success can be attributed to the proactive government polices adopted after Phnom Penh’s initial lackadaisical response in the early months of the pandemic. Geography has probably also played a role. Cambodia’s larger neighbors and sources of most cross-border travel, Vietnam, Thailand, and China, have so far controlled the spread of the virus within their borders.
 
Cambodia has recently taken creative steps to shore up its healthcare system. The Ministry of Health on February 18 began training healthcare personnel from across the country on vaccination procedures as part of a planned vaccine rollout to frontline workers, especially in border areas. A day after declaring the new outbreak in the capital, the ministry released a QR code-based contact tracing system  called “Stop Covid,” which the public seems to have quickly adopted. And on March 2, The Preah Sihanouk Provincial Administration announced that it would use 29 hotels, apartments, casinos, and shopping malls as quarantine centers.
 
But overall, Cambodia’s healthcare system remains relatively weak and would struggle with a more serious outbreak. This makes a smooth vaccination rollout critical for the country. The government has inoculated just over 100,000 people since February 10 using’s China’s Sinopharm vaccine. But Cambodia has so far secured access to only 2.3 million vaccine doses—enough for about 8 percent of its population. These doses will come through donations from China and allocations from COVAX, the global vaccine distribution facility. Prime Minister Hun Sen said on February 1 that Cambodia plans to eventually secure enough doses to vaccinate 10 million citizens, or about 60 percent of the population. But the Economist Intelligence Unit estimates that it will take Cambodia until at least 2023 to reach effective mass immunization.
 
Singapore
 
In Singapore, spread of the virus has been under control for several months. But the government knows that new outbreaks are inevitable and the pandemic will continue to wreak economic havoc. Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on February 16 announced a new Covid-19 Resilience Package worth $8.3 billion. That money will support vaccinations, testing, contact tracing, medical care, financial support for businesses, and cash handouts and tax rebates for millions of lower income Singaporeans. The government will also tap $40.6 billion of its reserves to fund Covid-19 support measures already taken in 2020 and 2021.
 
This budget will put Singapore into a rare deficit this year. But the government sees little choice but to try and prop up the economy. Singapore’s GDP contracted 5.4 percent in 2020, marking the city-state’s worst ever recession. Aided by the extra cash from this budget, the government hopes economic growth will rebound to between 4 and 6 percent this year.
 
For more details on Southeast Asian responses to Covid-19, visit our online Tracker.