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Opinion

Asia is neglecting disabled people during coronavirus outbreak

Governments must take extra efforts to inform and protect most vulnerable

| Indonesia
Students with disabilities in school in Lhokseumawe, pictured on Mar. 6: the early detection of COVID-19 exposure among the disabled has been difficult.   © Antara Foto/Reuters

Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat is a senior lecturer at Universitas Islam Indonesia who has published on disability. Dikanaya Tarahita is an Indonesian journalist focusing on socio-economic issues.

If the coronavirus outbreak is hard for everyone in Asia-Pacific, it is even more difficult for the 690 million people with physical or intellectual disabilities living there: they are less able to avoid catching COVID-19 than other people and more likely to die from it.

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