The country’s death rate due to the virus stood at 9.1 percent compared to 5.2 worldwide.
Indonesia recorded its first case of COVID-19 on March 2nd and now it has reported 1,986 confirmed cases and 181 deaths as of April 3rd, ranking at the top of the highest fatality rate in Southeast Asia as well as the number of deaths in the region.
Indonesia’s death rate stood at 9.1 percent compared to 4.5 percent of the Philippines and 1.6 percent of Malaysia, the country’s two closest neighbors.
According to the government, 13 healthcare workers in the capital city of Jakarta, the hardest-hit part of the country, have died due to the virus.
Indonesia faces a sudden jump in its COVID-19 statistics after its recorded zero infections and fatalities in February 2020.
A shortage of personal protective equipment, the overstretched healthcare system and the lack of rapid testing have contributed to the high number of COVID-19 fatalities in the country.
According to Indonesia’s health ministry, there are 2,813 hospitals in the country with an average of 12 beds available for every 10,000 people and about four doctors per 10,000 people across the country.
Indonesia has brought in 500,000 rapid-testing kits from China and has begun testing its citizens with an average test of 25 people per one million citizens as of April 2nd.
The Eijkman-Oxford Clinical Research Unit estimated a jump in the number of people infected by the virus in Indonesia to 71,000 people by the end of April.
Furthermore, researchers from the University of Indonesia also predicted that the number could go up to 600,000 to 2.5 million people by mid-May.
Jusuf Kalla, the chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross Society, said in March that only 49 out of 132 referred hospitals in the country were ready to accept COVID-19 patients.
Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergencies Programme, suggested that countries like Indonesia were still in the early stages of the pandemic and that they still have the opportunity to implement a comprehensive strategy focused on containment and suppression of the virus.
“It’s really important that the healthcare system is prepared for any increase in cases,” he added.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that his organization has been working very closely with the Indonesian government and promised to boost cooperation in containing the deadly virus.
