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Luhut warns COVID-19 cases may rise further, hopes won't top 60,000
In a streamed news conference, Luhut also said that vaccine efficacy was weaker against the Delta variant of the virus that accounted for most infections on Java island, but urged people to get inoculated to help prevent serious illness and death.
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Coordinating Maritime and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan (center) at a press conference over domestic project investments in Jakarta on Tuesday (10/12). (JP/Norman Harsono)
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oordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan warned on Thursday that COVID-19 cases may continue to rise in the country, but said authorities hoped that daily infections would not top 60,000.
In a streamed news conference, Luhut also said that vaccine efficacy was weaker against the Delta variant of the virus that accounted for most infections on Java island, but urged people to get inoculated to help prevent serious illness and death.
Indonesia on Wednesday reported a record 54,000 infections, up more than tenfold on the number of cases at the start of June, despite new containment measures.
Read also: Self-isolation patients scramble for help amid Indonesia’s second COVID-19 wave
"Indonesia could become the epicentre of the pandemic, but it's already the epicentre of Asia," said Dicky Budiman, an Indonesian epidemiologist at Australia's Griffith University, quoted by AFP.
"If you look at the population difference between India and Indonesia... then the pandemic is far more serious than in India."
Concerns are mounting over the ability of Indonesian regions to cope with a spike in coronavirus cases, according to Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, as the highly transmissible Delta variant spreads quickly across the world's largest archipelago.
The Delta variant first identified in India has been found in 11 areas outside of the densely populated Java island, health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said, quoted by Reuters.
Cases and bed occupancy rates have risen in parts of Sumatra, Papua and Kalimantan, or Indonesian Borneo, and far-flung regions like West Papua were especially concerning, he told parliament this week.
Read also: Fears rise of looming COVID-19 crisis outside Java
"We must monitor this tightly, because if there's something happening there, their health capacities are below Jakarta or Java," Budi said.
In East Nusa Tenggara, infections have more than doubled in the last three days, while in Lampung on Sumatra bed occupancy on Monday had reached 86 percent, East Kalimantan at 85 percent, and West Papua at 79 percent.
