24 doctors die in Indonesia as it chalks up its biggest daily rise in Covid-19 cases

Jakarta

A MEDICAL association in Indonesia said 24 doctors have died after contracting the coronavirus as the country announced its biggest daily increase in the number of new cases on Monday.

The rise in the death toll among doctors, which has doubled since last week, followed criticism of a lack of protective equipment in Indonesia.

The 218 new Covid-19 cases took the number overall in Indonesia to 2,491. The 209 confirmed deaths among people who have contracted the virus is the highest number of fatalities in Asia outside China.

"The trend of (doctors dying) is heading for the sky," said Halik Malik, a spokesman for the Indonesian Doctors Association which confirmed the doctors' deaths from Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

"The risk of medical workers getting infected is always there. . . but the point is medical workers need to be protected in any way," he said.

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A number of rights groups, including Amnesty International, have expressed concern at the high proportion of deaths among medical workers.

"The death of medical workers is not just a number, but an alarm for the country to fix their health system in an emergency situation," a coalition of the groups said in a statement on Saturday.

Health experts have pointed to the high percentage of deaths among the number of confirmed cases as a sign that the outbreak is much larger than official data suggests in the world's fourth most-populous nation.

Indonesia's own intelligence agency has predicted that the deadly virus may infect as many as 95,000 people in Indonesia by next month before easing.

President Joko Widodo told a cabinet meeting on Monday that personal protective equipment (PPE) had been distributed across Indonesia, though he said regional officials must monitor the arrival of the equipment in hospitals.

The president has rejected calls to lock down cities and regions to fight the virus, saying that such harsh steps would hurt the poor the most. But the surge in cases has overwhelmed the country's healthcare system, with the authorities struggling to procure enough personal protection equipment, hazmat suits and ventilators for medical workers.

Some local administrations have sought permission to impose large scale social distancing measures under a new rule issued by the health ministry, Doni Monardo, chief of the government's task force on the novel coronavirus said on Monday. The steps will allow police and other law enforcement agencies to take "measurable actions", according to officials.

Indonesian healthcare workers have at times faced a lack of protective gear, with some doctors forced to wear raincoats and bring their own masks to protect themselves from the virus. A deficit in hospital beds, medical staff and intensive care facilities has raised concern that the Covid-19 crisis could push Indonesia's health system to the brink.

At least 10 Indonesian provinces, including the eastern provinces of Maluku and Papua, lack Covid-19 facilities, Mr Monardo, told parliament on Monday.

In recent weeks, Indonesia has converted a former Vietnam war era refugee camp on an uninhabited island off Sumatra, and a former athletes' village into novel coronavirus treatment facilities. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG