Crowded, poor South Asia sees steady rise in coronavirus cases

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ISLAMABAD/KABUL (Reuters) - Health authorities across South Asia reported rising tallies of coronavirus cases on Monday, raising the prospect of rapidly spreading outbreaks overwhelming poor medical facilities in a region that is home to a quarter of the world's people. South Asia has been relatively lightly hit by the virus compared with neighbors to the east, like China and South Korea, and to the west like Iran and parts of Europe. "As compared to developed countries like the United States and China it will be difficult to (enforce) social distancing, especially in slum areas," said Giridhara R Babu, an epidemiologist at the Indian Institute of Public Health in the city of Bengaluru.