 "A health worker takes a swab sample at a pop-up Covid-19 testing station in the Sanlitun area of Beijing, China, on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. China imposed new travel and movement restrictions amid a delta-driven outbreak that’s grown to over 500 sympt")
The delta variant is challenging the part of the world that’s been most successful in blunting the economic impact of Covid-19, with Asian countries that snuffed it out locking down again as the virus returns, and others seeing the world’s highest death rates.
Just 12 months ago, the Asia-Pacific region’s rapid containment of Covid-19 made them the envy of the world as the virus ravaged the US and Europe. Now, from Seoul to Sydney, Bangkok to Beijing, authorities are reimposing growth-sapping restrictions as low vaccination rates in many of those places leave their populations vulnerable.
So far, it’s consumers
