INDONESIA is in crisis as the COVID-19 death toll surges to more than 2000 a day.
Australia’s near neighbour is still bracing for a peak in cases as the highly infectious Delta variant is sweeping across the densely populated country.
The Catholic Church has converted a pastoral centre in Jakarta into an isolation ward to care for pandemic patients.
There are nearly 90 nuns, priests and other carers and the facility is run by Fr Yustinus Ardinato, who has himself recovered from the coronavirus.
Many Australians in Indonesia, including Bali, have expressed anger that the federal government has so far not stepped in to help them by sending repatriation flights.
“It’s incredibly concerning to live here,” Jack Brazel, who moved to Jakarta in 2018 as a sales manager in the education sector, told the ABC.
“There’s a lack of vaccine access for foreigners in Indonesia, because they’re obviously prioritising their own people.
“Japan flew out all its expats. Why does it take so long for Australia to react to any sort of crisis?”
For weeks, Indonesia, home to about 270 million people, has reported thousands of daily cases and is struggling to make any vaccination progress. Only seven per cent of the population is fully vaccinated.
Hospitals are running dangerously low on supplies, excavators are frantically digging burial plots, and isolating remains impossible for the millions who rely on their daily marketplace trading to feed their families.
Indonesia entered a lockdown on July 10, and the government said it is “mobilising all resources” to deal with the Covid-19 surge, including bringing in oxygen from other countries to increase the supply.
Experts say Indonesia is now bearing the cost of not locking down early enough.
Research by John Hopkins University shows more than 27 per cent of tests being carried out come back positive, giving Indonesia one of the highest test positivity rates in the world.
A major barrier to controlling Indonesia’s outbreak is misinformation.
Official warnings about the severity of COVID-19 are being lost in the daily noise of social media.
For months, WhatsApp messages have spread fake news about ineffective COVID-19 treatments.
Hoaxes about the vaccines have circulated on social media, spreading fear that getting a jab could cause serious disease or death.
