Asia has seen a spike in Covid-19 cases. These charts show what’s really going on

For much of the pandemic, these places were held up as “The number of confirmed cases continues to increase significantly, but the severity and fatality rate, and the medical system’s responsiveness, are considered manageable,” said health official Son Young-rae in a briefing on March 23. “(We) believe that once the peak of this Omicron wave passes, we’ll be able to convert to a system that is closer to a normal life.”Both South Korea and New Zealand have high vaccine rates — but crucially, they have vaccinated their elderly, who are most vulnerable to severe illness and death from the virus. And so far, that’s meant that while these countries have seen an increase in fatalities as their cases rise, they’ve still been able to keep death rates relatively low. Although funeral homes are struggling to keep up with a spike in Covid deaths in South Korea, the country’s fatality rate was 0.13%, lower than the United Kingdom’s 0.18%, the US’ 1.2%, or France’s 0.59%, health official Lee Ki-il said Friday, citing World Health Organization (WHO) statistics.It’s a similar situation in New Zealand — while the country had one of the highest reported Covid cases per capita over the past week, when it comes to deaths per capita for the past week, it doesn’t even make the top 20 worldwide. Again, the region’s outlier is Hong Kong. Hong Kong, with a population of 7.4 million, has reported more than 7,300 Covid deaths since the end of December. The city’s death rate per capita has been the highest in Asia and Oceania every day since February 28.In Hong Kong, 84.5% of the population age 12 or over have been vaccinated with two shots, but — crucially — just 60% of people age 70 or over have had two doses. The virus was able to rip through elderly homes, where vaccination rates were low. The question over whether stringent measures are worth it is also playing out in mainland China, which is facing is biggest outbreak since the one recorded in Wuhan at the start of the pandemic.And like Hong Kong, vaccinations among the elderly are lagging, raising concerns the city’s deadly outbreak may foreshadow a deadly wave across the border. About 40 million Chinese over the age of 60 have yet to receive a vaccine, according to data from China’s National Health Commission (NHC). Only about half of those age 80 and over are fully vaccinated, the NHC said in its most recent breakdown on March 18. Of those over 80, less than 20% have received a booster shot, despite WHO saying last year that all elderly people taking China’s inactivated vaccines needed three shots to be fully protected. For now, it looks as if China is sticking with its zero-Covid strategy — and relying on strict lockdowns to get its spiking cases under control.CNN’s Yoonjung Seo and Simone McCarthy contributed to this report.