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Better risk communication needed as Indonesia surpasses 30,000 COVID-19 deaths
After becoming the first country in Southeast Asia to reach the 1-million mark of COVID-19 cases, Indonesia has recorded nearly 30,000 deaths because of the coronavirus disease.
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A visitor walks in front of oxygen tanks at Anutapura hospital in Palu, Central Sulawesi on Saturday. (Antara/Basri Marzuki)
T
he lack of proper risk communication by the relevant authorities has been blamed for the worsening COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, which recently saw its case number pass 1 million, with 30,000 deaths, including over 600 health workers.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the 1-million-case mark should become a moment for the nation to mourn.
“There’s deep grief among us as we pass this mark but this is also a reminder that we still need to work hard, so our late friends’ sacrifices won’t have been in vain,” the minister said during a press briefing on Jan. 26.
However, epidemiologists have said that grief is not enough and urged the government to communicate the COVID-19 risks better to the general public to ease the burden created by the disease.
Epidemiologist Dicky Budiman from Griffith University, Australia, said the public’s perception of the coronavirus disease had been poor from the beginning due to information conveyed by the government that undermined the real magnitude of the outbreak.
For example, the government keeps lauding the number of people recovering from COVID-19, which continues to rise over time. Meanwhile, the number of active cases and positivity rate are often underreported.
Read also: How two officials testing positive depicts the state of Indonesia's COVID-19 response
