Indonesia: 55 Medical Workers Have Died from COVID-19

Updated at 7:39 a.m. ET on 2020-05-07

At least 55 medical workers have died from COVID-19 complications in Indonesia, officials disclosed on Wednesday, as President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo postponed regional elections from September to December because of the pandemic.

Limited supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), combined with fatigue and risky emergency procedures, contributed to the high rate of fatalities among medical personnel, an official with the government’s coronavirus task force said.

“To date, 38 doctors and 17 nurses have died of COVID-19,” task force senior official Wiku Adisasmito said.

“This condition is also exacerbated by patients who are not honest about their infections, recent travel history and contacts,” he told reporters participating in a virtual press conference. “This is something that must be rectified by all parties involved in public health. We must shift the focus from treatment to prevention.”

One month ago, the Indonesian Medical Association expressed alarm that the number of doctors killed by COVID-19 had jumped to 25 – at a time when the national death toll was 209. The World Bank reported that the nation had one doctor for every 3,000 people.

On Wednesday, Indonesia recorded 367 new coronavirus cases, bringing the national tally to 12,438, task force spokesman Achmad Yurianto said. The death toll rose to 895 after 23 additional deaths were recorded overnight.

Globally, more than 3.7 million have been infected by COVID-19 and nearly 260,000 have died, according to data compiled by disease experts at U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.

Meanwhile, Jokowi signed an emergency decree postponing regional elections until the end of the year because of the pandemic, the cabinet secretariat said Wednesday.

The elections for nine governors, 37 mayors and 224 district chiefs had been scheduled for Sept. 23, but were moved to a December date to be determined by the General Election Commission (KPU). The decree allows the elections to be postponed further if the epidemic has not been brought under control.

Speaking to his cabinet, Jokowi urged the country to focus on flattening the pandemic’s curve.

“For this reason, I call on all the ministers, the commander of the Armed Forces and the national police chief to mobilize all resources and  energy to mitigate COVID-19 and adverse effects,” Jokowi said. “We must achieve our target for the curve to go down this May.”

Late last month, Doni Monardo, the COVID-19 task force chief, said if Indonesians obeyed restrictions imposed by the government, their lives could return to normal by July.

On Wednesday, Jokowi also inaugurated Police Inspector General Boy Rafli Amar as chief of the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), in a ceremony where the president, Boy and other officials wore masks and practiced social distancing as safeguards against the coronavirus.

Boy, 55, takes over Indonesia’s top counterterrorist post from Suhardi Alius, who led the agency since July 2016 and has taken on a new role as a policy analyst at the national police’s Criminal Investigation Department. Boy, a 32-year police veteran, earlier served as police chief in Indonesia’s restive Papua region and as national police spokesman, among other posts.

Poverty reduction set back

In other developments, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that COVID-19 had set Indonesia’s poverty-eradication efforts back by a decade because 2 million people had lost their jobs during the last six weeks in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.

“All of our achievement in reducing the poverty rate between 2011 and 2020 is reversed,” Indrawati said, according to Reuters news service.

Indonesia’s poverty rate was 12.36 percent in 2011, with nearly 30 million people considered poor. The rate was 9.22 percent in September 2019, with 24.79 million people counted as poor.

Last month, Sri Mulyani said about 2.9 million to 5.2 million jobs from a workforce of 134 million could be lost this year as a result of the pandemic.

Earlier this week, the Central Bureau of Statistics said the economy grew at 2.97 percent in the first quarter, its weakest pace in nearly two decades.

Also on Wednesday, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi announced that the government had decided to ease travel restrictions on specific modes of transportation, starting the next day, to allow trains, flights and ferries to operate provided that social distancing measures and health guidelines are observed.

The government suspended domestic air and sea travel on April 24 in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19. The measure had been scheduled to run until May 31.

Travel restrictions for the general public and the ban on the annual mass homecoming for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr remained in place, Budi said. Exceptions would be made for those who need to travel for urgent matters, including medical workers, members of security forces, politicians and people who work in essential sectors.

“Aircraft and all other modes of transport can operate and carry these people, provided that they obey health protocols,” Budi said during a virtual meeting with the House of Representatives.

People can travel within the greater Jakarta region for essential purposes such as grocery shopping, but are required to observe social distancing measures and wear masks at all times.

However, an Indonesian disease expert voiced skepticism.

The decision to reopen air, land and sea travel could be used by people to circumvent the Eid homecoming ban, adding that monitoring could be difficult, said Pandu Riono, an epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia’s School of Public Health, adding that monitoring could be difficult.

“If many people travel, positive cases could soar again,” he told BenarNews.

The updated version of this report includes details about the inauguration of the new counterterrorism chief.