Indonesia tops Brazil in reporting highest daily Covid-19 deaths
Indonesia has reported more than 2.8 million cases and 73,582 deaths overall. The US has the highest Covid-19 cases at 34 million and deaths at 609,000. More than 540,000 people have died in Brazil.
Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most populous country, has reported more daily deaths related to Covid-19 second only to Brazil, according to data. Indonesia said on Sunday that were 1093 fatalities and 44,721 Covid-19 cases, the least in nearly a week but the highest in Asia. On Saturday, there were 1092 deaths in Indonesia as Brazil reported 868 fatalities attributed to Covid-19.
Health experts are calling Indonesia the new epicentre of the pandemic and data from the latest seven-day average from a Reuters tracker showed it has reported more new Covid-19 cases than any country in the world in recent days. Indonesia has reported more than 2.8 million cases and 73,582 deaths overall. The US has the highest Covid-19 cases at 34 million and deaths at 609,000. More than 540,000 people have died in Brazil.
Also read | Indonesia faces oxygen crisis, reaches out to countries for help
Indonesia's government imposed strict curbs on July 3 to slow the spread of the coronavirus and is considering whether to extend the restrictions set to end on Tuesday.
The surging cases of Covid-19 have overwhelmed hospitals and depleted the country’s oxygen supply, even as the government has added beds and imported oxygen tanks. According to crowdsourcing platform LaporCovid19, at least 650 people have died at home while self-isolating as they could not find beds in hospitals.
Doctors' deaths
As the Delta variant of the coronavirus fuelled a surge in infections across Indonesia, more and more doctors have died from Covid-19. According to a doctors' association, the number rose sharply in the first half of July.
Reuters reported citing officials from Indonesia's doctors' association (IDI) as saying that 114 doctors died during July 1-17, the highest number reported for any period of similar length and more than 20 per cent of the 545 total doctor deaths from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
Also read | Indonesia’s Covid cases surge past India, marking new epicenter
"We are worried about the potential of a functional collapse. This is the reported data, not yet data that may not have been reported to us," Mahesa Paranadipa, a senior IDI official, said and added that the association was concerned that the medical system may not be able to cope.
According to Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker, more than 57 million vaccinations have taken place in Indonesia, enough to cover about 11 per cent of its population. It’s 53 per cent in the US and 48 per cent in the European Union.
(With agency inputs)
