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Listen, the Angel of Death is banging on your door
The situation now is horrifying.
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Medical workers treat patient inside an emergency tent at Dr. Sardjito General Hospital in Sleman, Yogyakarta on July 4, 2021. Yogyakarta health authorities confirm on the death of 63 COVID-19 patients treated at the hospital between July 3 and 4 due to depleting medical oxygen supply. (Antara/Hendra Nurdiyansyah)
T
hese days, condolence expressions such as Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un (We surely belong to Allah and to Him we shall return), RIP and semoga semua keluarga yang ditinggalkan tetap tabah (I hope the family left behind stays strong) are commonly found on social media such as Facebook and WhatsApp. Until a few months ago, we were more familiar with words of encouragement like “stay healthy, stay strong”.
The situation now is horrifying. My close neighbors are either hospitalized or self-isolating due to the coronavirus. There are at least 32 people in my community unit (RW) suffering from the deadly disease. The Angel of Death is moving closer to us, and may soon bang on our doors.
I was reading The Jakarta Post’s editorial “They did not have to die,” on July 3 morning, when I received a video clip from a family friend. In the video, dated March 23, about 1,500 medical workers and COVID-19 patients play an angklung (bamboo musical instrument) orchestra to mark one year since the Athletes Village in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta has been used as an emergency hospital for COVID-19 patients.
The editorial’s message was a mixture of anger, sadness and desperation. It criticized President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo for prioritizing the economy over saving lives. And that was why the lives lost to the virus are mere statistics to be reported — collateral damage to be sustained to keep the economy alive.
“But they are more than just numbers. They are friends, relatives and fellow citizens, who expected nothing more than their government to keep them alive,” the editorial appealed to the President, ”We cannot bring back those who perished, but the President alone can change the course of this war”.
In its front page story that day, this newspaper quoted Erlang Samoedro, a pulmonologist at Persahabatan Hospital in East Jakarta, as saying that health workers at the hospitals were extremely exhausted. “Patients keep coming, and almost half of our colleagues have fallen ill”.
President Jokowi eventually ordered emergency public activity restrictions (PPKM Darurat) across Java and Bali last week when the number of fatalities skyrocketed and hospitals were collapsing as the bed occupancy rate almost reached the maximum level. People in big cities were panic buying oxygen tubes.
