Even before the postponement of critical talks in Geneva due to the Omicron variant, the WTO was facing major gridlocks on issues ranging from tackling climate change to providing Covid-19 vaccines.
As long as government spending remains robust and monetary policies accommodative, the Delta outbreak in the region is unlikely to arrest its growth momentum.
Closing borders will not stop new or future variants from finding their way in but it will stall fragile recoveries and add to economic and social distress. Instead, governments should ramp up domestic protocols ahead of mass vaccination campaigns.