Coronavirus: Indonesia resolves to take containment measures

Text by: RFI Follow

While Indonesia has the highest number of deaths in Southeast Asia, the army has been called in to reinforce the containment measures decreed by the governor of Jakarta.

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With our correspondent in Southeast Asia, Gabrielle Maréchaux

This is a scenario that Indonesia has pushed back to the most critical point. The army and police are now patrolling the streets of Jakarta to enforce the order to stay at home.

After many weeks of underestimating the threat of the coronavirus, with a number of official cases that observers considered suspiciously low, the governor of Jakarta, home of the virus in the fourth most populous country in the world, said Thursday April 9 that you had to stay at home for the next two weeks in order to stem the epidemic.

Up to $ 9,000 fine

Those who fail to comply with these measures face up to $ 9,000 in fines and a year in prison. Strict containment measures arrive, while the city of 30 million inhabitants saw its daily workers leave the megalopolis to return home to the four corners of the country.

Stopping the epidemic has now become an absolute emergency in this country, which has the highest number of deaths in Southeast Asia, with 3,512 confirmed cases for 306 deaths according to John Hopkins University . And this while the country has on average only four doctors per 10,000 inhabitants.

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• Indonesia
• Coronavirus
• Health and Medicine