In Indonesia, infections with the delta variant of the coronavirus are getting out of hand. According to the Red Cross, the country is on the brink of catastrophe. Hospitals and cemeteries in the large cities on Java fill up quickly, says correspondent Annemarie Kas.
In Rorotan, a district in the east of Jakarta, excavators are constantly working. The city council of the capital has hastily turned a few fields into a cemetery. Only three people are allowed to say goodbye at the same time when burying the corona dead in the desolate place, but few people care about that, Kas says in the newspaper. NOS Radio 1 News. Relatives follow the hearses and sometimes two or three coffins are unloaded at once.
On Thursday, 504 corona deaths were reported across Indonesia, according to official figures. The actual number is probably higher, says Kas. The infection rates are also rising rapidly. “Corona has never left here, but the numbers we see now, around 20,000 infections per day, it was never this high during the first wave.”
The numbers are rising, especially in densely populated Java. In Jakarta, but also in cities such as Yogyakarta, Bandung and Solo, many hospitals are full.
This has everything to do with the more contagious delta variant, and with the many family visits during the Sugar Fest at the end of May. But also with the policy of President Widodo, who ignored the warnings of virologists for a long time. “He has given priority to the economy for a long time and waited as long as possible with measures. Many people here depend on the informal economy and they therefore have no income if they have to stay at home. The government cannot help all of them,” says greenhouse.
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