Abstract

The pandemic infectious coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) first originated in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The entire world was locked down along with China to prevent local transmission and wide geographical spread. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a public health emergency because of the increasing number of cases around the world. The WHO data on July 9, 2020 showed more than 11 874 200 confirmed and 545 400 death cases of COVID-19 around the world.

Taking into account the transmission, morbidity, and mortality of COVID-19, it is observed that most of the developed countries having advanced healthcare systems along with using their innovative research have failed to cope with COVID-19. On the other hand, developing countries with their struggling and compromised healthcare system have even failed to record the prevalence of COVID-19. It is due to the lack of basic health facilities, unavailability of medical equipment, and absence of diagnostic kits.^, Moreover, infection prevention and control programs are also weak and compromised in developing countries.

In the near future, the total number of confirmed cases is expected to increase significantly in limited-resource or developing countries. The weakness of these healthcare systems will lead to major direct and indirect mortality rates. Pandemic outbreaks are major threats to the economy of countries, especially to those countries that are already bankrupt. This blow to their economy will take many years to recover from and return to the normal conditions. COVID-19 was found as a mounting threat to the economy of the entire world, including the neighboring developing countries of China, that is, Pakistan, India, Iran, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. According to the WHO, as of July 9, 2020, more than 1 462 300 confirmed and 41 300 deaths cases were recorded from COVID-19 in these countries.

The main objective of the current article is to explore the ill-equipped healthcare systems and economies of the mentioned 5 neighboring countries of China. Additionally, we also highlight the expected consequences of COVID-19 on them.