Indonesia Hits Two Million Cases After 14,536 New Cases Were Registered

Indonesia passes two million coronavirus cases since the pandemic broke out. The hospitals have been flooding with new patients.

The unwanted milestone was hit when the case rates spiked up by times two. The authorities said this might be because of highly infectious COVID-19 variants.

On Monday, Indonesia recorded 14,536 new cases, taking total cases to two million. The death toll reached 55,000 among the population of nearly 270 million.

However, due to inadequate testing and contact tracing, the figure of two million seems to be undercounted. According to experts, the original figure may be the only 10pc of the current count.

“It’s starting to bubble up to the surface, like a time bomb,” said Windhu Purnomo, an epidemiologist at Indonesia s Airlangga University.

“This is just the beginning. Depending on how things are handled, we could end up with a major explosion like in India.”

Cases have spiked up ever since the third wave of the virus, which includes the highly infectious Delta variant, which was first identified in India.

The rise in the cases has also been connected with the millions of Muslim majorities who migrated at the end of Ramadan, despite the official ban on travelling.

Hospital occupancy rates have soared by 75pc.

“It’s worrying,” Jakarta resident Rahmani told AFP at a cemetery where he attended the funeral of a relative who died of the virus.

“As good citizens we have to follow government orders to obey health protocols.”

Virus Affecting Younger People

The Indonesian Medical Association said the variants appeared to be sickening younger people.

“Previously, Covid-19 patients were elderly or those with,” the association s Covid-19 spokeswoman Erlina Burhan said earlier.

“But since the virus variants were detected, a lot of patients were younger” and did not have pre-existing conditions, she added.

Negligence of SOPs in Indonesia has been the major reason for the spike in cases.

World Health Organization (WHO) has called for tougher movement restrictions.

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