As China begins to witness the remnants of coronavirus outbreak in the country, Indonesia is still in its early age. Officially confirming its first case in the beginning of March, the country now has 893 positive cases, with 78 fatalities.
However, medical experts have predicted that the current reported cases do not encapsulate every single case in the country. A study by the London-based School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine estimates that Indonesia only detected 2% of its total case so far.
According to the statistics, the world’s fourth most populous country might be the new epicenter of the pandemic considering its current, early stages. Another, another study projects that there might be millions of infections in Jakarta only by the end of April.
“We have lost control, it has already spread everywhere,” said Ascobat Gani, a public health economist. “Maybe we will follow Wuhan or Italy. I think we are in the range of that.”
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Indonesia and the Seemingly Unendurable Battle against Coronavirus
The fight against COVID-19 in the country appears to be beyond challenging, to the point that it is almost unendurable. Various factors have been contributing to the difficulties in mitigating the damage of the pandemic.
Among the factors is the inadequate medical facilities to accommodate the patients. For instance, Indonesia has 321,544 hospital beds, about 12 beds per 10,000 people. In comparison, South Korea, a less populous country than Indonesia, has 115 hospital beds per 10,000 people.
The number of doctors that Indonesia currently has might possibly slow down the treatment. Indonesia has four doctors per 10,000 people, whereas Italy has 10 times more on a per capita basis.
Even worse, the public awareness regarding COVID-19 and social distancing is also considerably shallow. Despite some areas showing notable signs of less human interactions, it is observable in some parts of slum areas and coffee shops that people are still hanging around.
Last but not least, government’s efforts in keeping the risk to a minimum is considerable not enough as public expresses disappointment. Considering the rapidly escalating cases and high mortality rates in mere weeks, the government still refuses to conduct lock downs and is under the impression that the outcome would not be that severe.
“We won’t be like that,” said Achmad Yurianto, a senior health ministry official, comparing the outbreaks in Indonesian with outbreaks in Italy and China. “What’s important is that we rally the people … they have to keep their distance.”