JAKARTA, Indonesia – After the pandemic started, Indonesia’s reported coronavirus infections surpassed 1 million on Tuesday and hospitals were heavily congested in some hard-hit areas.
The Ministry of Health of Indonesia reported that on Tuesday, new daily infections increased by 13,094 to bring the country’s total to 1,012,350, the most in Southeast Asia. The overall death toll reached 28,468.
The landmark came shortly after Indonesia launched a huge campaign to vaccinate two-thirds of the 270 million people in the world, with the first shot of a Chinese-made vaccine being offered to President Joko Widodo. In the fourth most populous nation in the world, health care personnel, military, police, educators, and other at-risk groups are prioritized for the vaccine.
Authorities said that Indonesia will need approximately 427 million doses, considering the estimate that during the distribution process, 15% of the doses could be wasted in a vast nation of more than 17,000 islands where transport and facilities are restricted in places.
Jakarta persists to be Indonesia’s hard-hit city, with more than 254,000 cases reported as of Tuesday, including 4,077 deaths. As of Tuesday, just 8.5 percent of the city’s total 8,066 hospital beds were left for new patients, while beds with ventilators were packed.
Data from the Health Ministry showed that hospital capacity was around 70 percent nationwide. Health experts have cautioned that it is merely a fast fix to add hospital beds that will inevitably collapse if the number of daily cases continues to increase.
Public health expert Masdalina Pane of the Indonesian Association of Epidemiologists said the government should instead amplify efforts to test and track as well as improve health protocols and ensure public adherence.
She said that high positivity rates are a sign of inadequate testing and large spread of the virus, and it will help slow the transmission of the infection by attempting to compel asymptomatic people to quarantine at home.
“This 1 million figure gives an indication that all Indonesian people must work together with the government to fight against the pandemic even harder,” Gunadi said.
Since the beginning of December, the number of coronavirus-related cases and deaths has risen significantly, causing seven regional governments on the Java and Bali islands to re-impose restrictions on social interaction.
Source: ABC News