Like much of Southeast Asia, Myanmar weathered the early storms of the COVID-19 pandemic by shutting its borders and imposing strict internal travel restrictions to reduce spread of the disease. However, by the time a third wave of infections hit the country in July 2021 Myanmar was in the midst of new political turmoil and there was no controlling the virus.
In February the Myanmar military had taken control of the country in a coup, detaining Myanmar’s elected leaders and placing the entire country under a ‘State of Emergency’. Almost all sectors of the country were devastated by the coup, with Healthcare one of the worst affected. With Myanmar facing this third wave of COVID-19 infections, hospitals overflowing, and martial law in effect, large numbers of patients found themselves being refused access to hospital facilities and forced to go through the illness in their own homes due to a severe lack of emergency medical services.
During the height of the surge Yangon’s crematoriums worked around the clock to burn the dead.
Photographer – Ta Mwe
Ta Mwe (Burmese: တာမွေ), is a Burmese photojournalist and documentary photographer with experience covering a wide range of political and social stories and events throughout Myanmar. After many years working for national and international publications and organisations as a photographer, videographer and video editor, Ta Mwe’s recent work has focused on analogue stills photography, covering first the COVID-19 crisis and then the country’s anti-coup protests. Due to the political situation in Myanmar the name Ta Mwe is an alias and this bio has been heavily redacted to remove any identifying information.
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