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Christians find hope on Easter, despite pandemic, terror attacks
Religious leaders were among the first to get inoculated in order to suppress the stigma on COVID-19 vaccination.
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A congregant prays during a Good Friday service at the Catholic Church of Christ the King in Surabaya, East Java, on Friday. Attendants were required to adhere to the strict health protocols during the service to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. (Antara/Didik Suhartono)
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or many Indonesian Christians, this year’s Easter celebration was a test of strength and faith, with the coronavirus pandemic still affecting the lives of millions of people and the country reeling from two recent terror attacks. Many, however, are looking to the country’s COVID-19 vaccination drive as a source of hope.
Forty-three-year-old Evi Widiyastuti, from Cileungsi, Bogor, West Java, said she wished all members of the public could get vaccinated soon so that people would feel more comfortable going to work and places of worship.
“As a Catholic, I long to go to church and gather for Mass with other members of the congregation,” said Evi, who is a congregant of Mary the Lady of All Nations in Bogor.
Her 72-year-old father contracted COVID-19 in mid-February and was treated in the hospital for three weeks — a period Evi described as “quite hopeless”, as her father was elderly and had comorbidities. Sadly, a relative in Surabaya, East Java, did not survive the disease.
She was sure that her father had caught the virus from her brother-in-law, who was living with her father in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta. He had tested positive as an asymptomatic COVID-19 carrier.
“There must be a lot of [asymptomatic patients] who carry and spread the virus around like my brother-in-law. It’s scary. That’s why I hope everyone can get vaccinated quickly,” Evi told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Both her father and brother-in-law have recovered, but she said she wanted her father to get vaccinated once he was allowed. The Health Ministry allows a COVID-19 survivor to be inoculated at least three months after recovery.
