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COVID-19 deaths remain high despite drop in cases
COVID-19 deaths continue to rise in Indonesia even though the third wave of coronavirus infections — fueled by the highly contagious Omicron variant — has been showing signs of easing these past weeks.
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A man gets vaccinated during a mass vaccination program held in Jakarta. (Kompas.com/Kristanto Purnomo)
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OVID-19 deaths continue to rise in Indonesia even though the third wave of coronavirus infections — fueled by the highly contagious Omicron variant — has been showing signs of easing these past weeks.
Indonesia recorded 401 confirmed COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, an unprecedented high in the past three months since the discovery of the first known Omicron case in the country. The number, however, declined to 304 on Wednesday.
The seven-day fatality rate has increased by 14 percent to 2,171 people from 1,862 in the previous week, even as the number of new weekly cases dropped by 29 percent from around 299,700 to 211,000.
Health Minister spokesperson Siti Nadia Tarmizi said deaths would likely start to decrease a week after Indonesia reached its peak of the third wave.
"Based on the pattern we've seen from other Omicron-stricken countries, deaths will likely decline eight to 10 days after the peak of the infection wave," she told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. "We estimate that fatalities will start to taper off by the third week of this month at the latest."
Experts have previously said that the COVID-19 fatality rate was a lagging indicator, meaning that it will rise two to three weeks after case numbers climb, as people dying are usually infected at least two to three weeks earlier.
Indonesia recorded the highest daily new case numbers during the Omicron-fueled wave on Feb. 23 with 61,488 cases, and daily transmissions have been declining since then.
