Covid-19: Indonesia daily death rate tops 2000 for first time

Indonesia has recorded its highest daily death toll from Covid-19 despite a dip in infections.

Volunteers remove the body of a woman suspected to have died from Covid-19 from a home in Yogyakarta. Picture: Getty Images.

Indonesia has recorded its highest daily death toll from Covid-19 despite a dip in infections, with experts warning the surging mortality rate could be a symptom of “a very high number” of undetected cases.

It comes days after President Joko Widodo extended level 4 restrictions until next week while relaxing some provisions, such as allowing outdoor dining with a 20-minute limit.

On Tuesday, Indonesia recorded 2069 deaths overnight, bringing the total coronavirus death toll in the country to 86,835. The country has registered more than 1000 coronavirus deaths daily since mid-July. More than half of the recent deaths have come from the provinces of Central Java, East Java and West Java, as the pandemic showed signs of decline in the previous epicentre of Jakarta.

Officials have said that many of the dead had underlying diseases and encouraged regional leaders to prepare more isolation centres to help those with mild Covid-19 symptoms to quickly recover.

“I have asked the military and police to bring patients to isolation centres, especially the elderly and those with comorbidities, so they can be monitored and receive oxygen supply,” said Co-ordinating Maritime Minister Luhut Pandjaitan.

The Health Ministry has dismissed allegations that stretched resources in health facilities have led to the high number of deaths, pointing to the decline in bed occupancy rates nationwide. It said that the alarming number of deaths might be due to the Delta strain of the virus which is believed to have caused more than 90 per cent of recent infections.

“There are still many patients who test positive but put off accessing health services … or refuse going to isolation centres,” said spokeswoman Siti Nadia Tarmizi.

“We also know that the Delta variant increases the severity of clinical symptoms.”

Experts predict that the Covid-19 fatalities in Indonesia will continue to increase unless tighter restrictions are imposed.

“Many of these deaths are directly caused by chronic delays on-ground, like late detection of cases and late intervention,” said Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologist at Queensland’s Griffith University.

“Countries that have stronger testing and tracing capacity can prevent these deaths or keep their death rates low.”

Citing Indonesia’s high positivity rate, Mr Budiman told The Australian that the current number of Covid-19 deaths in Indonesia “correspond to a much bigger number of infections … possibly around 200,000 cases daily” and warned that there would be a spike in fatalities around mid-August as a result.

He also pointed to the increasing number of deaths outside Indonesia’s major cities as an indication that a “silent outbreak” is taking place in rural areas.

Analysts have said that Indonesia might be the last country to recover from the pandemic because of its economic-driven policies and half-hearted curbs.

Jokowi, as the President is known, aims to exit the pandemic through a major nationwide vaccination drive targeting 208 million people above the age of 12.