Indonesia’s confirmed coronavirus infections since the pandemic began crossed 1 million on Tuesday and hospitals in some hard-hit areas were near capacity.

Indonesia’s Health Ministry announced that new daily infections rose by 13,094 on Tuesday to bring the country’s total to 1,012,350, the most in Southeast Asia. The total number of deaths reached 28,468.

The milestone comes just weeks after Indonesian launched a massive campaign to inoculate two-thirds of the country’s 270 million people, with President Joko Widodo receiving the first shot of a Chinese-made vaccine. Health care workers, military, police, teachers and other at-risk populations are being prioritized for the vaccine in the world’s fourth most populous country.

Officials have said that Indonesia will require almost 427 million doses, taking into account the estimate that 15% of doses may be wasted during the distribution process in the vast nation of more than 17,000 islands, where transportation and infrastructure are limited in places.

Jakarta continues to be hardest hit city in Indonesia, confirming more than 254,000 cases as of Tuesday, including 4,077 deaths. Only 8.5% of a total 8,066 hospital beds in the city were left for new patients as of Tuesday, while beds with ventilators were filled.

Other provinces across the country’s most densely populated island of Java, such as West Java, East Java and Yogyakarta, have also been seeing high bed occupancy rates, up to 95%, in the past few weeks. Even in Jakarta’s neighboring province of Banten, the occupancy rates reached 100% last week.

Health Ministry data showed hospital capacity nationwide was at about 70%.

Abdul Kadir, the director general of health services at the ministry, called the situation “dire.”

The government has issued a circular urging private hospital owners across the country to allocate up to 40% of beds for COVID-19 patients, Kadir said.

Health experts have warned that adding hospital beds is merely a quick fix that will eventually falter if the number of daily cases continues to rise.

Health policy expert Masdalina Pane from the Indonesian Epidemiologists Association said the government should instead amplify testing and tracing efforts as well as reinforcing health protocols and ensuring public compliance.

She said high positivity rates are a sign of insufficient testing and wide transmission of the virus, and efforts to force asymptomatic people to quarantine at home would help slow the spread of the virus.

The number of coronavirus-related cases and deaths has been rising dramatically since early December, prompting seven regional governments on the islands of Java and Bali to reimpose restrictions on public activity.

The virus has killed more than 11,000 people in Indonesia since Dec. 1, representing 40% of the total number of casualties since the outbreak started in early March.

“This is time for us to mourn as many of our brothers and sisters have died, including more than 600 healthcare workers, while dealing with pandemic,” said Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said Tuesday in a televised addresss.

He vowed his ministry will continue to proactively implement measures to curb the spread of the virus and urged people to observe health guidelines with discipline to reduce the burden of the country’s healthcare system.

“This 1 million figure gives an indication that all Indonesian people must work together with the government to fight against the pandemic even harder,” Gunadi said.

Related Stories
‹
WHO Downgrades COVID Pandemic, Says It’s No Longer Emergency
Written by MARIA CHENG and JAMEY KEATEN The World Health Organization said Friday that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies worldwide and killed at least 7 million people worldwide. WHO first declared COVID-19 to be an emergency more […]
Orange County Ends COVID-19 Testing Services After Nearly 3 Years
After nearly three years of offering PCR tests for COVID-19, the Orange County Health Department has officially halted its testing services.
Bus Delays Expected for CHCCS Community After 25 Staffers Call Out Sick
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools students and families who rely on school buses will likely experience an influx of delays after more than two dozen staff members are out due to COVID-19 protocols. The district shared an alert on Friday afternoon, telling families that several of its bus drivers recently tested positive for the virus, felt […]
Beds Run Out at Beijing Hospital as COVID-19 Spreads
Written by ANDY WONG and KEN MORITSUGU Patients, mostly older people, lay on stretchers in hallways or took oxygen while sitting in wheelchairs as a COVID-19 outbreak stretched public health facilities’ resources in China’s capital Beijing, even after its reported peak. The Chuiyangliu hospital in the city’s east was packed Thursday with newly arrived patients. […]
Police Seize on COVID-19 Tech to Expand Global Surveillance
Written by GARANCE BURKE, JOSEF FEDERMAN, HUIZHONG WU, KRUTIKA PATHI and ROD McGUIRK Majd Ramlawi was serving coffee in Jerusalem’s Old City when a chilling text message appeared on his phone. “You have been spotted as having participated in acts of violence in the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” it read in Arabic. “We will hold you accountable.” […]
A Week Into China’s Easing, Uncertainty Over Virus Direction
Written by DAKE KANG A week after China dramatically eased some of the world’s strictest COVID-19 containment measures, uncertainty remained Thursday over the direction of the pandemic in the world’s most populous nation. While there are no official indications yet of the massive surge of critically ill patients some feared, social media posts, business closures and other […]
China Eases Anti-COVID Measures Following Protests
Written by JOE McDONALD China rolled back rules on isolating people with COVID-19 and dropped virus test requirements for some public places Wednesday in a dramatic change to a strategy that confined millions of people to their homes and sparked protests and demands for President Xi Jinping to resign. The move adds to earlier easing that […]
Chinese Users Play Cat-and-Mouse With Censors Amid Protests
Written by ZEN SOO Videos of hundreds protesting in Shanghai started to appear on WeChat on Saturday night. Showing chants about removing COVID-19 restrictions and demanding freedom, they would stay up only a few minutes before being censored. Elliot Wang, a 26-year-old in Beijing, was amazed. “I started refreshing constantly, and saving videos, and taking screenshots […]
Students Sent Home, Police on Patrol as China Curbs Protests
Written by JOE McDONALD, DAKE KANG and HUIZHONG WU Chinese universities sent students home and police fanned out in Beijing and Shanghai to prevent more protests Tuesday after crowds angered by severe anti-virus restrictions called for leader Xi Jinping to resign in the biggest show of public dissent in decades. Authorities have eased some controls after demonstrations […]
China’s Xi Faces Threat From Public Anger Over ‘Zero Covid’
Written by DAKE KANG Barely a month after granting himself new powers as China’s potential leader for life, Xi Jinping is facing a wave of public anger of the kind not seen for decades, sparked by his “zero COVID” strategy that will soon enter its fourth year. Demonstrators poured into the streets over the weekend […]
›