Experts Warn on Indonesia COVID Surge

By Staff, Agencies

Health officials in Indonesia are blaming the emergence of the Delta variant first detected in India for a massive surge in COVID-19 that has seen the number of daily new cases more than triple in recent weeks, but some of the country’s leading infectious disease experts say the real reasons are closer to home.

“The spread of this virus variant is very fast,” Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin admitted during an online seminar on Sunday, adding that the variant had got a foothold in Indonesia through its ports.

“Because many seaports in Indonesia carry goods and many also come from India, they enter from there,” he said.

However, experts say the surge is a result of travel at the end of the month of Ramadan – when many people ignored a travel ban to visit their hometowns, the absence of a cohesive health policy coupled with confused messaging, the privatization of testing regimes and ineffective tracing.

While travel was restricted at domestic airports and ferry terminals from April 22 to May 24, the government estimated between five and six million people still moved between cities on Indonesia’s two most heavily populated islands of Java and Sumatra during the holiday period.

“All COVID variants are a concern but the Delta variant has not proven to be more deadly,” said Udayana University professor Gusti Ngurah Mahardika, Bali’s most senior virologist. “It only gets a silver medal; the champion in Indonesia is still the Alpha variant. I believe the Delta variant is being used as a scapegoat because of the government’s incapacity to control the pandemic.”

Health authorities on Thursday reported 12,624 cases – the highest daily rise since February – bringing Indonesia’s total cases to nearly two million.

Mahardika said it is almost impossible to pinpoint the reason for the surge because infection rates are “so underreported” that health data “cannot be referred to” in Indonesia, but he pointed to a number of probable causes.

“People travelling during Ramadan played a role, no question about that,” he said. “But we are a disorganized country, most of the focus is on the economy and the people are experiencing COVID exhaustion and fatigue. In the capital [of Bali] Denpasar where I live, the cafe and restaurants are full every evening.”