Variant fuels massive outbreak

The dead in Myanmar are piling up outside cemeteries, overwhelming workers struggling to keep pace with the demand for cremations. Those stricken with COVID19 in Yangon, the country’s largest city, have begun flying yellow and white flags outside their homes in a plea for volunteers to deliver medicine and food. Social media are awash with appeals for oxygen as more and more people suffocate from the advance of the virus.

Six months after Myanmar was plunged into chaos by a military coup, the Southeast Asian nation is confronting a massive outbreak of COVID19 fueled by the emergence of the delta variant. Less than 3% of Myanmar’s population is fully vaccinated, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford, whose latest numbers are from June.