August 2 – Case Numbers Begin to Fall Across Indonesia as President Extends Lockdown
New daily covid case numbers have begun to fall in Indonesia from the record high numbers reported two weeks ago.
In the past week numbers have averaged around 33,00 cases a day well down from the 56,757 new cases reported on July 15. Yesterday the new daily case number was 22,404. The new daily death toll was 1,568, down from a high of 2,069 deaths recorded on July 27. Deaths in the country have averaged more than 1,000 a day since July 16.
President Joko Widodo announced yesterday that the nationwide emergency lockdown which has been in place since July 10 would be extended for another week. He thanked all Indonesian people for their understanding and support and said the lockdown is proving to be effective in reducing the the number of new cases and transmissions.
However some observers have noted that the true number of deaths and new confirmed cases may be being concealed by the fact that many people are choosing to not get tested and are staying home while they are ill, rather than confront the stigma of being found to be covid positive.
To date Indonesia has reported 3.4 million confirmed cases and 95,000 deaths although many experts believe the true numbers could be many times higher.
In the capital city of Jakarta alone, a serological survey of 5000 people from 106 districts across the city found that almost half the population of 10 million people either had the virus or have already had it. Official test results indicate that only around 8% of the city’s population have contracted the virus.
If the survey results were extrapolated across the island of Java, with it’s population of 140 million people, the true number of infected people in Indonesia could be in the multiple tens of millions.