Myanmar’s COVID-19 cases broke 90,000 this week. As people gathered in homes, parks and pagodas to celebrate the Full Moon Day of Tazaungdaing, the Ministry of Health and Sports urged people to follow personal safety guidelines as strict lockdowns continue throughout the country. “Our healthcare system has not collapsed yet, but is overburdened,” U Than Naing Soe, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Sports, told the Myanmar Times.

The pandemic continues to spread among essential workers and public servants. This week, the Myanmar Teachers Federation revealed that over 100 teachers may have contracted COVID-19 while serving as poll workers. Two of them have died. Furthermore, 16 police officers in Mandalay have tested positive after transferring from Yangon, the Times reported. Mandalay health officials said they are running out of beds in COVID-19 quarantine and treatment centers.

The ever-rising case count comes despite ongoing lockdowns that continue to take a toll on the economy. But an editorial this week in Frontier magazine argued that the lockdowns are reaching the limits of their usefulness as people grow weary of following them. It suggested easing the lockdowns and developing subtler solutions. “[T]hese ‘lockdowns’ cause great economic and social harm; there are limits to what you can ask people to do. We are now well past those limits, particularly in Yangon,” the column said.