Indonesia surpassed the 100,000 dead mark from Covid-19 on Wednesday as the Southeast Asian country struggles to contain a deadly new wave of spread of the virus aggravated by the Delta variant.

This new variant has been detected in several dozen regions of Indonesia after being identified for the first time in June in the archipelago.

Health authorities on Wednesday recorded 1,747 deaths due to Covid-19, bringing the total to 100,636 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

A very underestimated number of recorded cases?

More than 3.5 million cases have been recorded in Indonesia, although experts consider these statistics largely underestimated due to the low number of tests carried out in this country which has the fourth largest population in the world.

Many Indonesians have succumbed to the disease at home, due to lack of hospitalization or access to oxygen supplies, while hospitals in several regions have been saturated in recent weeks.

According to LaporCovid, an NGO that has set up a collaborative platform to collect data from the epidemic, more than 2,600 patients died at home between early June and July 24.

Tightened restrictions in early July

For those who were hospitalized "the deaths occurred (...) mainly because of a delay in recognizing the severity of the symptoms and in taking care of the patients", indicated the spokesperson of the team in charge of the management of the Covid, Siti Nadia Tarmizi.

The government tightened restrictions in early July as the number of new infections soared and extended them twice in areas where health facilities are saturated.

Offices, shopping centers and schools are closed, while restaurants only welcome customers for a maximum of 20 minutes.

The ambition to vaccinate 208 million inhabitants

The government has long hesitated to impose restrictions for fear of too much economic backlash as Indonesia has been in recession since late 2020.

The country aims to vaccinate 208 million inhabitants out of a population of more than 270 million but the rate of vaccinations has remained well below the target of one million doses per day.

Some 8% of Indonesians have been vaccinated with two doses so far.

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  • World

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Delta variant

  • Indonesia