Myanmar’s shadow government plans US$300 million vaccination drive to cover ‘20 per cent of population’

Tin Tun Naing, finance minister of the National Unity Government, says the group is taking a ‘pragmatic approach’ by working to vaccinate residents in rebel-held areas

The shadow administration hopes a clandestine online lottery and global crowdfunding will help raise an initial US$700 million for humanitarian aid and arming the resistance force

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Students wearing masks and face shields leave after attending the first day of school in Yangon, Myanmar. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:30am, 22 Sep 2021Updated: 9:46am, 22 Sep 2021

With only six per cent of junta-ruled Myanmar’s 54 million people vaccinated, the country’s shadow government is planning to channel much of its revenue from global crowdfunding campaigns towards inoculating as many residents as possible.

The National Unity Government’s (NUG) finance minister Tin Tun Naing told This Week in Asia in a recent interview that the effort would first focus on areas not under the full control of the military, and was expected to cost US$300 million.

The NUG, comprising activists and lawmakers loyal to the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD), has the backing of several armed ethnic groups that control sizeable amounts of territory.

Tin Tun Naing said the shadow administration was “thinking pragmatically” and would first undertake the vaccination effort via the health departments of these ethnic armed groups.

The junta administration’s latest Covid-19 figures showed that 3.47 million were fully vaccinated. The daily caseload stood at 1,585 on Monday, with the total number of cases now standing at 448,158. Meanwhile 17,129 people in the country have died due to Covid-19, the data showed, though activists and experts say these figures greatly underplay the severity of the pandemic in the country.

The NUG’s vaccination effort would cover about 20 per cent of the country’s population, or nearly 11 million people, Tin Tun Naing said.