COVID-19 Batters Myanmar Junta, Oxygen Supply Evaporates

The Myanmar junta that snatched power from the government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, 2021 is getting a battering from COVID-19 as cases skyrocket and the supply of oxygen tanks for patients evaporates.

Writing for the Associated Press (AP), Grant Peck noted that long queues have formed in outlets selling medical oxygen, with one buyer, Soe Win, saying “I have been waiting since 5 in the morning until 12 noon but I’m still in line. Oxygen is scarcer than money.”

Consumed by a bitter and violent political struggle since the military seized power in February, Myanmar has been slow to wake up to a devastating surge in cases since mid-May.

Under Aung San Suu Kyi, the civilian leader ousted by the military, Myanmar had weathered its second coronavirus surge beginning in August last year by severely restricting travel, sealing off Yangon, and curbing election campaigning in virus hot spots where lockdowns were imposed.

Suu Kyi appeared frequently on television with stern but empathetic entreaties to the public on how to deal with the situation. Vaccine supplies were secured from India and China. Her ouster came less than a week after the first jabs were given to health workers.

Her removal sparked protests, and medical workers spearheaded a popular civil disobedience movement that called on professionals and civil servants not to cooperate with the military-installed government.

Military hospitals continued operating but were shunned by many, while doctors and nurses who boycotted the state system ran makeshift clinics, for which they faced arrest. The pace of vaccinations slowed to a crawl, threatening an explosion in infections.

“No wise person with a good heart and a sincere desire for truth would want to work under the junta’s rule,” said Zeyar Tun, founder of the civic action group Clean Yangon who helped out at quarantine centers.

“Under Suu Kyi, the government and volunteers worked together to control the disease, but it is difficult to predict what the future holds under military rule.”

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