Poorer nations get short end of stick amid coronavirus pandemic

Residents in Ecuador's largest city of Guayaquil have to leave the bodies of their loved ones in the deserted streets, as funeral parlors and cemeteries are overwhelmed by the surge in deaths due to the novel coronavirus. People in masks are taking to the streets of southern Bogota, Colombia, to demand government aid because the national quarantine has emptied their pockets. The Dharavi slum in India, which houses a million residents, has become the country's epidemic epicenter.

These worrying developments are playing out while the world is gazing at the soaring death toll in New York City, which now resembles a ghost town.

As the coronavirus engulfs low- and middle-income countries, their people stand to lose the most. Inadequate healthcare systems, high population densities, a large informal economy, the slow spread of information and insufficient government finances are creating a cascade of suffering that is already beyond imagination.

In some ways, what the denizens of these countries face is reminiscent of the plight of the poor in developed countries: They have access to only the most basic healthcare facilities and resources, if at all, and can't afford to stay home.

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