In the global fight against COVID-19, an ever-widening gap has emerged between our region and the rest of the world. While East Asia and the Pacific have been relatively successful in containing the disease, the infection and fatality numbers for Europe and the United States in particular are shocking.
More than 210,000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19 across 31 European countries, including Britain, and a further 6.2 million people have been infected.
The US is experiencing a third surge, reporting more than 500,000 new cases in the past week, and states and cities have resorted to stricter new measures to contain the virus that is raging across the country, especially through the American Midwest heartland. With a population of 12.6 million, the state of Illinois has reported more than 30,000 new cases in the past week – more than Australia has recorded since January.
For Australia, the lesson of what’s happening in Europe - and of Victoria’s second wave - is that we are just one bad decision, one slice of bad luck, away from a new COVID-19 bushfire.
We must not be complacent or self-congratulatory. Leadership, science and unity got us and our Asia-Pacific neighbours to this place. And it’s these things that stand between a "zero COVID" life and the devastation of a new wave.
The news coming out of Europe and the United States is shocking. The graphs are startling. Don't count on travel beyond the Asia-Pacific region any time soon.
www.theage.com.au