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Jakarta Post

Not just about Java, Bali

Unfortunately, while the Delta variant is responsible for most new infections in the second wave of the pandemic that is beleaguering the country, health facilities and medical workers in regions outside of Java and Bali are simply poorly prepared.

Editorial board (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, July 27, 2021

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Not just about Java, Bali

T

he government has decided to extend the mobility curbs, albeit with some easing, in the form of multi-tier community activity restrictions. The focus appears to remain mostly on Java and Bali, the epicenters of the virus transmission, but sooner, rather than later, more attention should go to areas outside of the densely populated islands as COVID-19 is equally wreaking havoc there.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said last week infections and hospital bed occupancy rates (BORs) had increased in some parts of Sumatra, Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara and outlying Papua and West Papua, due to the spread of the Delta variant, which is more contagious and dangerous than the original strain that caused the pandemic last year. In particular the new variant is more dangerous as it infects both adults and children.

Unfortunately, while the Delta variant is responsible for most new infections in the second wave of the pandemic that is beleaguering the country, health facilities and medical workers in regions outside of Java and Bali are simply poorly prepared.

In Papua, a provincial health agency official said hospitals were stretched to full capacity, forcing health workers to treat patients in tents. In Lampung and East Kalimantan BORs soared above 85 percent, while in some areas in East Nusa Tenggara the rate neared 90 percent amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Even before the pandemic, the disparity between Java and Bali and the rest of the archipelago in the field of health care had already become a cause for concern. In Jakarta there are 170 physicians for every 100,000 people, which is 17 times the ratio in West Sulawesi. Many have attributed the inequality to the fact that most schools of medicine are located in Java.

The pandemic has only exacerbated the problems. With the more dangerous Delta variant rearing its ugly head, and more virulent strains predicted to rub salt into Indonesia’s wound, it is incumbent on the government not to leave any region behind. After all Indonesia is a unitary state, with every citizen wherever they live deserving equal access to health and protection from the virus.

During a hearing with the House of Representatives, the health minister vowed to closely monitor how things develop in areas outside Java and Bali simply because their health capacities lag behind those of the two islands.

In the long run of course the government can incentivize doctors, nurses and midwives to work in the least developed regions not only to improve health standards there, but also to help the local people prepare themselves better in case a new pandemic strikes.

The immediate measure the government has to take is to boost vaccination rates in areas that the national inoculation program has not yet covered. While Jakarta has pledged to vaccinate 8 million of its population by the end of August, the vaccination rate in far-flung Papua is a low 6 percent, even though its positivity rate has exceeded 31 percent.

The government also needs to increase testing and tracing rates all over the country in order to grasp the real picture of the COVID-19 pandemic we are facing and to devise the right responses. The war on COVID-19 spans across the archipelago, it is not limited to Java and Bali.

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