Indonesia imposes national lockdown to stem Delta Covid-19 variant

The move came a day after Indonesia said it was importing emergency oxygen from neighbouring Singapore.

Covid-19 patients, such as this one on Wednesday in West Java’s Bogor, are dying at home because hospitals are full. Picture: AFP

Indonesia expanded nationwide coronavirus curbs on Wednesday to battle its deadliest Covid-19 wave yet, as the death toll rocketed and the government warned the worst may be yet to come.

The move came a day after Indonesia said it was importing emergency oxygen from neighbouring Singapore as hospitals crumbled under the weight of the Delta variant.

The restrictions imposed on Wednesday would apply to dozens of cities and extend from Sumatra in the west to easternmost Papua as the highly infectious Delta variant rips across the archipelago after battering densely populated Java. The restrictions include forcing non-essential employees to work from home, as well as limiting shop and restaurant hours. The Muslim-majority country’s mosques and churches were also closed in the highest-risk areas.

“Cases are also rising in other regions and we need to pay attention to the availability of hospitals” there, said senior minister Airlangga Hartarto, adding, “the government has decided to extend the restrictions” until July 20.

The Delta variant has brought hospitals to their knees, forcing families to hunt for oxygen tanks to treat the sick and dying at home. On Tuesday, Jakarta said about 10,000 concentrators — devices that generate oxygen — were to be shipped from Singapore. Some had already been flown in on a Hercules cargo plane.

The government said it was also in talks with other countries, including China. Senior minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said the country was bracing for up to “70,000 (cases) per day at worst”.

Hospitals in the capital, Jakarta, were topping 90 per cent occupancy and more than a dozen facilities in second city Surabaya shut out new patients because they could no longer handle the huge influx.

A Surabaya hospital spokeswoman described jammed intensive care units and exhausted doctors, some infected with Covid-19.

“The hospital no longer has rooms for patients who need ventilators. The ICU rooms are also full,” said the woman.

“We’re overwhelmed. Many of our health workers have collapsed from exhaustion and some are also infected.

“We are trying to get volunteers to help out.”

Nearly 1000 Indonesian medical workers have died of Covid-19, including more than a dozen who were already fully inoculated.

Thousands of troops and police are scrambling to enforce new virus curbs to bring down record daily cases, which soared on Tuesday to 31,189 new infections and 728 deaths —- as much as seven times the daily mortality rate less than a month ago. Daily Covid-19 burials in Jakarta alone are up 10-fold since May, overwhelming exhausted cemetery workers scrambling to keep up.

AFP