Indonesia emerges as Asia’s new Covid-19 epicenter

Indonesia has reported 54,517 new cases of Covid-19, state authorities, a single-day national record, and a calamitous warning sign for the world’s fourth-most populated country.

The island nation which is home to about 270 million people is now recording more cases in a day than hard-hit India.

Recent statics from Indonesia has made the country a new epicenter for the pandemic in Asia.

If the spread continues undiminished, experts have claimed that it could push Indonesia’s health care system on the edge of disaster.

Some experts have also claimed that the situation may be worse than the numbers show, because not sufficient people are getting tested for the virus.

Whereas according to the survey found that nearly half of the 10.6 million populace of Jakarta may have contracted Covid-19.

Experts have stated that Indonesia is now obtaining the costs of not instigating strict lockdowns nor investing enough inefficient contact-tracing systems.

At first, authorities did not understand how rapidly the virus had been scattering in this latest wave, stated Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin.

Officials are concerned that hospitals may not be able to manage an increasing number of patients demanding hospitalization, especially as the more contagious Delta variant of the virus spreads.

Another 991 Covid-19 fatalities were also reported, pushing the total death toll to 69,210.

“Every day we are seeing this Delta variant driving Indonesia closer to the edge of a Covid-19 catastrophe,” stated Jan Gelfand, head of the Indonesian delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

He also stated that in late June as the number of cases first began to increase. Since then the situation has only worsened.

State-run Antara News reported that 90,000 of Indonesia’s 120,000 hospital beds are now engaged.

Prices of oxygen have surged in late June, and now some hospitals appear to be running out.

More than 60 people died in a single competence earlier this month after a hospital on Java nearly shattered its oxygen supply.

Authorities are also pugnacious to get enough people vaccinated.

Whereas, Indonesia has fully vaccinated just 5.5% of its population.

In Jakarta, about 2 million people some 18% of the city’s population have been fully inoculated, according to data from the health ministry.

President Joko Widodo stated on Wednesday that inoculations are Indonesia’s “hope to recover from this global health crisis.”

“Fair and equal access to vaccines must be guaranteed since we see there is still a wide gap in vaccine access throughout the country,” he said, according to Govt News.

On Tuesday, nearly 3.5 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine arrived in Indonesia as part of the global inoculation sharing program COVAX.

Furthermore, Indonesia has received more than 14 million vaccines through the program, according to state media.