Asia Vaccinating

By mid-2021, vaccination against Covid-19 was in full swing in many Asian countries. However, hidden behind encouraging average figures, progress was rather unequal.

The graphs on this page provide a snapshot of the progress of vaccination against Covid-19 in selected Asian countries as at July 11, 2021. By this time, a little more than 25 per cent of Asia’s population was fully or partially vaccinated. Measured by population size, this was about global average, and with nearly 1.2 billion people having gotten at least one jab, the progress was impressive in absolute term.

However, vaccination progressed with very different speeds in different Asian countries. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the city of Singapore led the field; wealthy Asian countries followed, but at a distance. In general, they did better than poor ones, but not always; per capita GDP does not necessarily predict vaccination success. Policies by national government and the people’s trust in them (or lack thereof) matter.