Covid Surge Prompts Return of Scanners, Masks in Asian Cities

Governments across Southeast Asia are bringing back measures to limit a rapid resurgence of respiratory infections such as Covid-19, including installing temperature scanners at airports and encouraging people to wear masks again.

The goal is to slow the spread of a variety of germs, as a confluence of Covid, flu and other respiratory pathogens may set off wider outbreaks that ultimately stretch healthcare systems.

But it can be a fraught process, with the public highly attuned to the risk of draconian measures, which were put in place early in Asia at the start of the pandemic in 2020 and which ...