Coronavirus: in Indonesia, cemeteries are reaching saturation point

A cemetery established by the Indonesian government in Medan, August 7, 2020. Septianda Perdana / Antara Foto via Reuters

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2 min

In Indonesia, the graves of those who died from the coronavirus have filled cemeteries, and one of them announced that he will soon be unable to find places.

This announcement says a lot about the scale of the Covid-19 pandemic in the fourth most populous country in the world.

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With our correspondent in Kuala Lumpur,

Gabrielle Maréchaux

The manager of the Pondok Ranggon cemetery, in eastern Jakarta, Indonesia, makes a disastrous calculation: by mid-October, there will be no more room for new graves, after the recent turmoil of the very long first wave of coronavirus contaminations in the country.

►Also read: Indonesia: the coronavirus deprives Bali of tourism until 2021

Another peak in burials in August, despite the government's record

This finding is not surprising, unfortunately not.

Since the start of the pandemic, the number of burials recorded in the country has reached records.

March figures, for example, were already the highest in a decade, with a third more funerals than average.

But August saw a new peak in the country's capital, with an average of 27 burials per day in this cemetery in Jakarta alone.

If these figures are alarming, they also clash with the official record of the government which, for six months, seems far below reality, in this country which performs 30 times fewer tests than in the United States and which only has three intensive care beds per 100,000 inhabitants.

Another alarming figure: the death rate of children sick with the coronavirus, 45 times higher than that of the United States, the country currently most affected by the pandemic.

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  • Indonesia

  • Coronavirus

  • Health and medicine

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