JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – The confirmed coronavirus infections of Indonesia since the start of the pandemic crossed 1 million on Tuesday and hospitals in some hard-hit areas were almost capacity.
The Indonesian Ministry of Health announced that new daily infections rose by 13,094 on Tuesday to increase the country to 1,012,350, the most in Southeast Asia. The total number of deaths reached 28,468.
The milestone comes just weeks after Indonesians launched a massive campaign to vaccinate two-thirds of the country’s 270 million people, with President Joko Widodo receiving the first shot of a Chinese vaccine. Healthcare workers, the military, police, teachers and other at-risk populations are being prioritized for the vaccine in the fourth most populous country in the world.
Officials said Indonesia needed nearly 427 million doses, taking into account an estimate that 15% of the doses could be wasted during the distribution process in the large country of more than 17,000 islands, where transportation and infrastructure are limited in places.
Jakarta remains the worst-hit city in Indonesia, confirming more than 254,000 cases as of Tuesday, including 4,077 deaths. Only 8.5% of the total 8,066 hospital beds in the city are left for new patients as of Tuesday, while beds are filled with fans.
Other provinces in the country with the densest population of Java, such as West Java, East Java and Yogyakarta, have also had a high occupancy rate of beds in recent weeks, up to 95%. Even in Jakarta’s neighboring province of Banten, occupancy rates reached 100% last week.
The data from the Ministry of Health showed that the hospital’s capacity nationwide was about 70%.
Abdul Kadir, the director general of health services at the ministry, called the situation ‘appalling’.
The government has issued a circular urging private hospital owners across the country to allocate up to 40% of the beds to COVID-19 patients, Kadir said.
Health experts have warned that the addition of hospital beds is simply a quick fix that will eventually falter as the number of daily cases continues to rise.
Health policy expert Masdalina Pane of the Indonesian Epidemiologists Association said that the government should rather strengthen the testing and detection efforts, as well as ensure the improvement of health protocols and compliance with the public.
She said high positivity rates are a sign of inadequate testing and widespread transmission of the virus, and efforts to force asymptomatic people to quarantine at home will help slow the spread of the virus.
The number of cases and deaths associated with coronavirus has increased dramatically since early December, prompting seven regional governments in the islands of Java and Bali to reintroduce restrictions on public activities.
The virus has killed more than 11,000 people in Indonesia since December 1, representing 40% of the total number of victims since the outbreak began in March.
“It is time for us to mourn the loss of many of our brothers and sisters, including more than 600 health workers, in the face of a pandemic,” Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said in a televised address on Tuesday. said.
He promised that his ministry would continue to proactively implement measures to curb the spread of the virus, and encouraged people to adhere to health guidelines with discipline to reduce the burden on the country’s healthcare system.
“This figure of 1 million gives an indication that all the people of Indonesia need to work with the government to fight even harder against the pandemic,” Gunadi said.