June 13
An alarming rise in new cases of coronavirus has health authorities and government officials on hig alert as hospital wards and health care workers throughout Jakarta and large parts of Java, Indonesia’s most populous island, are fast becoming stretched to their limits.
The main cause for concern is that it is the highly contagious Delta strain that is now running rampant throughout the island.
Health care workers number amongst those dying as a result of exposure to the Delta strain, including many who had already been vaccinated against the virus.
The most readily available and commonly prescribed vaccine in Indonesia is the Chinese developed, Sinovac. It is widely considered to be less effective than European made vaccines such as Pfizer and Modena and appears to provide less resistance against the newer and more infectious strains.
In the past month, new case numbers have sky-rocketed from about 4,000 cases a day across the island group to over 14,000 cases a day just on the island of Java, 5,000 of which are being reported in the capital city, Jakarta.
It is also highly likely that actually case numbers are significantly higher.
One of the most populous cities in the world, Jakarta has struggled to slow the spread of the virus despite numerous lockdowns and a government led response which has failed to gain traction.
The latest surge in case numbers comes after large numbers of people ignored government orders to not travel ahead of Eid’l Fitri celebrations and the holiday period that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
The sudden spike is a huge blow to the neighbouring island of Bali, which has been preparing to reopen to international tourists in July.
The popular tourist island was forced to abandoned plans to reopen in September last year after case numbers surged across many parts of the country.
Once again, the chances of reopening appear to be coming slimmer by the day.