Southeast Asia (Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc.) has on the whole been very lightly hit by Covid, both the original and “Delta” variants, and so far nobody has a clue why that is. These places are crowded and nearly impossible to “social distance” in, and for the most part have insufficient medical infrastructure, along with all sorts of other deficiencies. But yet they have all been spared (relatively speaking).
Its not that Covid spares tropical countries. South and Central America have suffered perhaps the worst Covid outbreaks anywhere.
So why not SE Asia? Its not because of widespread use of either Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin. These are not in universal use at all; most of urban SE Asia does not suffer from malaria or intestinal parasites sufficiently as to make these a daily need by any significant % of the populations.
We just don’t understand the epidemiology of Covid sufficiently yet.
Here, in the Philippines, the mask, face shield and distancing rules have been ignored or relaxed for the last six months. Used to be that everyone you saw had a mask and a full face shield everywhere, (rural and urban). Then it became obvious that the folks in the rural areas were just not interested in wearing a mask all the time, and the shield was seen less and less. In the city the malls, fast food restaurants etc. were very strict about mask, shields and distancing, but in the last six months they have become less strict. No longer is a full face shield required; eyeglasses/goggles are now OK. Also they are not enforcing the “no 60+ year old’s allowed” policy, but they still are enforcing the no children under 15 allowed in the malls. Outside of the cities no one cares.