Suddenly, the epidemic broke out again!
Xinhua News Agency, Hong Kong, May 26 (Xinhua) — Thailand’s daily number of COVID-19 deaths hit a new high on Wednesday, while India’s total number of cases has exceeded 27 million, as some Asia-Pacific A new wave of epidemic broke out in the country.
Separately, daily Covid-19 cases in Malaysia are rising rapidly and have surpassed India in a key indicator, according to statistics website Data World. The key metric is: the number of daily Covid-19 infections per million people. This data has surpassed India for seven consecutive days.
On May 25, the Vietnamese health department announced that there were 447 new cases of COVID-19 that day, which was the largest increase since May 16, when 190 new cases were reported in a single day. It is reported that these cases mainly come from factories.
Emergency in Southeast Asia
Xinhua News Agency Hong Kong May 26 (Xinhua) — Thailand’s daily COVID-19 death toll hit a new high on Wednesday, while India’s total number of cases has exceeded 27 million, as a new wave of the epidemic broke out in some Asia-Pacific countries. Thailand reported 41 new deaths, its highest daily toll since the outbreak of the pandemic, raising the total to 873, the Ministry of Public Health said. The department also reported 2,455 new infections, 16 of which were imported and 2,439 were locally transmitted.
The federal Ministry of Health stated that the total number of confirmed cases in India reached 27,157,795, with 208,921 new confirmed cases recorded in the past 24 hours. The country has reported 4,157 more deaths since Tuesday morning, bringing the death toll to 311,388.
Fiji reported 27 cases, bringing the total number in the Pacific island nation to 286. According to Fiji’s Ministry of Health, 13 of the new cases are close contacts of previously announced cases.
The Philippine Department of Health reported 5,310 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 1,193,976. The death toll rose to 20,169 after another 150 patients succumbed to the viral disease, the department said.
Cambodia is confirming 660 cases daily, bringing the national total to 26,989, the Ministry of Health said in a statement. The new infections include 626 local cases linked to the third community transmission of COVID-19 that began on February 20, and 34 cases were imported, the ministry said.
Vietnam reported 80 new confirmed COVID-19 cases from 6:00 p.m. Tuesday to 6:00 a.m. Wednesday, raising the total to 5,931, the Ministry of Health said. The new cases are all community infections, including 55 cases reported in Bac Giang Province, the northern epidemic area, 23 cases reported in Bac Ninh Province in the north, and one case each in northern Hai Duong Province and central Thanh Hoa Province.
Data compiled by Our World in Data shows that the number of daily Covid-19 infections per million people in Malaysia since Sunday (seven days in a row) ) has surpassed India. The latest statistics showed Malaysia reported 205.1 cases per million people for the seven-day streak on Tuesday, while India had 150.4. Malaysia has a population of about 32 million, much smaller than India’s 1.4 billion. The country reported a record 7,478 coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of infections to more than 533,300. The country’s health ministry said on Tuesday that more than 2,300 people had died and 700 were infected in intensive care units.
Supply chain may return to China
Most countries in Southeast Asia are the world’s major production bases. So, with the outbreak of the epidemic, will it affect the supply chain? Analysts believe that from the perspective of epidemic prevention and control, Vietnam and India may not be able to control the short-term epidemic so easily. Therefore, there may be supply chains flowing back to China.
According to CNBC, Pinpoint Asset Management chief economist Zhang Zhiwei said that in the past, the Sino-US trade war caused companies to move their supply chains out of China, thus changing the production of products and services. and distribution network. As a result, countries such as Vietnam and India benefited. But that appears to be changing, with supply chains likely to shift back to China as cases surge in India and Vietnam.
In Vietnam, the northern province of Bac Giang on Tuesday ordered the closure of four industrial parks, including three housing production facilities of Taiwan’s Foxconn, due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Fengtai (9910-TW), Nike’s main shoe manufacturer, will suspend operations at a total of three factories in India for 10 working days starting from May 12. On May 24, Fengtai announced again: In order to comply with the local government’s epidemic prevention requirements, the shutdown will be extended until May 30. Fengtai’s current Indian production line accounts for more than 20% of the total production capacity, and will be supported by other overseas factories during the shutdown.
Zhang Zhiwei said that in Vietnam and India, the surge in confirmed cases of the new crown has forced factories owned by Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn to close. Foxconn is a major supplier to Apple, which could put the supply chain migration on hold for some time. The key issue here is that international travel is suspended so multinational companies cannot send employees to India.�Building new factory in Vietnam.
Originally, with the departure of the global supply chain, India was expected to become the “world’s factory.” However, due to the disruption caused by the epidemic, multinational companies have transferred orders back to China. An adjunct lecturer at New York University and a Chinese management consultant believes that if the epidemic in India does not improve before the summer, some large companies may withdraw from India.
Currently, China’s export growth is between 20% and 40% per month. If factories in India and Vietnam resume production soon, China’s exports are expected to slow in the second half of the year as companies shift production to the two countries. If supply chains (in India and Vietnam) are disrupted for a long time, China’s 20%-30% export growth will continue into next year. </p
