Indonesia surpasses 100K COVID deaths amid delta-fueled surge
Indonesia surpassed 100,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths on Wednesday amid a new delta-fueled wave of the virus.
The country has a total of 100,636 COVID-19 deaths after the Health Ministry recorded 1,747 new deaths in the past 24 hours, though many fear the actual toll could be significantly higher, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
The country took 14 months to pass 50,000 COVID-19 deaths, which it did at the end of May, but a mere nine weeks to hit the new grim milestone.
More than 2,800 people have died while self-isolating at home, after those people had been turned away by hospitals, said Ahmad Arif, a founder of independent virus data group LaporCOVID-19, which tracks home deaths.
“So they went back home and did the self-isolation at home with limited access to medicine, no oxygen and no monitoring from doctors until they died,” Arif told AP.
“It is very rare that patients come and get into the ICU directly,” said Lia Partakusuma, secretary general of the Indonesia Hospital Association, pointing to the short supply of ICU beds, namely outside of Java.
The association has received a slew of reported home deaths on the island.
“Many of them refuse to wait in the emergency unit, maybe they feel uncomfortable, so they decide to go back home,” said Partakusuma.
Indonesian hospitals need isolation rooms, supplies for oxygen, as well as medical and PPE equipment, according to the World Health Organization.
The country, the world’s fourth most populous, is also in need of body bags and mobile field hospitals — though more have been built amid the surge.
More than 3.5 million virus cases have been recorded in Indonesia since March 2020, with last month seeing 30,100 deaths — making it the deadliest since the start of the pandemic.
With News Wire Services
