, Columnist
Malaysia Will Be Crucial to Asia’s Covid-19 Damage Control
The balance of reopening for business versus public health plays out in a linchpin country.
Back open for business in Malaysia, but at what cost?
Photographer: Syaiful Redzuan/Anadolu Agency/Getty
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Asia has a new public emergency: breathing life into moribund economies.
Months after severely curtailing social and commercial activity in a bid to contain Covid-19, governments are scrambling to reboot activity. They confront a coronavirus that isn't out of business but economies that very nearly are. The policy priority is shifting from suppressing infections at almost any cost to combating truly awful scenarios for jobs, prices and gross domestic product.