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Nationwide coronavirus death toll increases by 18 percent in past week: Task force
Task force spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito said his office had recorded 785 deaths linked to COVID-19 between Oct. 19 and 26, an increase from the 665 deaths recorded in the previous week.
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Workers carry the coffin of a COVID-19 victim amid heavy rain at Pondok Ranggon public cemetery in East Jakarta on Oct. 2. The Jakarta administration has begun the two-month project of expanding the burial area for COVID-19 patients. In the first phase of expansion, the administration cleared 7,141 square meters. JP/PJ Leo (JP/P.J. Leo)
T
he coronavirus death toll in Indonesia has increased by 18 percent over the past week as social restrictions continue to be relaxed in several regions, according to the national COVID-19 task force.
Task force spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito said his office had recorded 785 deaths linked to COVID-19 between Oct. 19 and 26, an increase from the 665 deaths recorded in the previous week.
“Nationwide, the number of deaths over the past week increased by 18 percent,” Wiku said during an online press conference on Tuesday.
Five provinces with the most significant increase in coronavirus-related fatalities are West Java with 89 recent deaths, West Sumatra with 22, Central Java 16, Riau Islands 10, and West Nusa Tenggara seven, according to the task force data.
Central Java is a particular cause for concern as the province has consistently ranked among the five regions with the highest rise in coronavirus deaths in the country for two consecutive weeks, Wiku added.
Furthermore, the number of recoveries across the archipelago has also declined over the past week to 28,430 from 30,360 recorded in the preceding seven days, he said.
Read also: Stay at home during long weekend holiday: COVID-19 task force
“This is not a good news. We should have maintained the number of recoveries,” Wiku said.
Task force head Doni Monardo acknowledged that the number of deaths caused by COVID-19 in Indonesia still hovered above the global average.
However, Doni said he was optimistic that the country would soon be able to reduce coronavirus-related fatalities through robust cooperation among health workers.
He claimed that the mortality rate was higher among critical patients at 67 percent.
“We’ll see if the more experienced doctors are able to ameliorate the symptoms,” Doni said during an online discussion held by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, as quoted by kompas.com.
As of Tuesday, Indonesia has recorded a total of 366,454 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 13,512 deaths linked to the disease.
