Myanmar: Pandemic in a time of transition

Ostwald, K.; Myint, T.

This chapter examines how Myanmar faced distinct disadvantages in its ability to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic relative to regional neighbours. This is due to its continued grappling with simultaneous political, economic, and conflict-related transitions: Myanmar was a largely closed-off military dictatorship for nearly fifty years prior to its partial opening in 2011. In conjunction with structural factors, the triple transition had several important implications for Myanmar’s response to the pandemic. First, many of the aggressive approaches to countering Covid-19 that were effective in other contexts were infeasible for Myanmar, as the state lacked the capacity to enforce comprehensive population movement controls and large-scale testing and contact tracing. Second, Myanmar’s structural conditions prevented a uniform response to the pandemic. Third, Myanmar has several high-risk subgroups that complicated responses to the pandemic. © the several contributors 2021.