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More foreign COVID-19 aid arrives in Indonesia
The country is continuing to receive international assistance during its worst COVID-19 surge yet. The latest batch of aid, 1,000 ventilators from Australia, arrived late on Friday.
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Patients sleep under an emergency tent at Dr. Sardjito General Hospital in Sleman, Yogyakarta, on July 4. (Antara/Hendra Nurdiyansyah)
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ndonesia is continuing to receive international assistance during its worst COVID-19 surge yet, with the latest batch of aid, 1,000 ventilators from Australia, arriving late on Friday.
Australia will also be sending 2.5 million vaccine doses, oxygen concentrators, oxygen cylinders, antigen test kits and other medical equipment in stages, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry has announced.
“Cooperation and collaboration are key to dealing with the developments in the increase of COVID-19 cases and deaths that have occurred in various regions of the world as a result of this new variant,” the Foreign Ministry wrote in a statement on Saturday.
Earlier on Friday, Singapore delivered 200 ventilators, 250 empty oxygen cylinders, 30 oxygen concentrators and a number of other pieces of medical equipment to Indonesia. In addition to the aid, Indonesia has purchased 10,000 oxygen concentrators from Singapore, 30 of which arrived on Friday alongside the assistance.
Read also: Indonesia accepts foreign aid amid struggle to contain virus
Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said that over the course of the pandemic, the two countries had helped each other, including when Indonesia had supplied essential equipment for Singapore’s community care facilities last year.
“Now, at their point of need, we stand in solidarity with them. It is this kind of mutual support that represents the strength of our relationship – not just at the government-to-government level but also at the people-to-people level,” he said.
After a week of record breaking new daily cases, peaking at more than 38,000 on Thursday and Friday, Indonesia is visibly struggling to mitigate its worst spate of infections since the start of the pandemic. The situation has drawn the sympathy of the international community, with countries lining up to send much-needed relief in the form of medical supplies, equipment and COVID-19 vaccines.
A week ago, the country received a shipment of nearly 1 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses from Japan, while the United States recently announced it would be sending 4 million Moderna vaccine doses to Indonesia under the COVAX global equitable distribution initiative.
