Indonesia reaches peak of second Covid-19 wave fuelled by Delta variant – health minister

Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has announced that the country has reached the peak of a deadly second Covid-19 wave fuelled by the Delta variant, claiming over 9,000 lives in the past week.

The Southeast Asian nation, one of the worst-hit countries in the region, has seen its total Covid-19 cases soar to 3.37 million and fatalities rise to 92,311 in recent weeks. 

“We can already see that the peak has been exceeded, especially in areas in Java,” Sadikin said at a press conference on Monday, adding that officials have reported that “improvements are starting to appear” in the case numbers.

The highly transmissible Delta variant fueled the spread of the virus throughout the country over the past month, pushing hospitals to the brink as medical officials struggled to contain the spread of Covid-19, as fatalities reached record levels.

While the second wave might have peaked, the health minister expressed concern about the risk still posed to remote regions of the country, which have less well-equipped medical facilities, warning that the data shows the positivity rate across the country is still high.

With the past week seeing the country record its deadliest day since the Covid-19 pandemic began, Indonesia has focused its attention on ensuring citizens register to get a Covid-19 jab, warning that most of those who died from the virus were unvaccinated.

Although Indonesia has managed to administer 64.4 million doses of vaccines since launching its inoculation program in January, the rollout has been plagued by logistical problems, a lack of supplies and some domestic resistance to getting the jab. So far, less than 10% of the country’s adult population has been fully vaccinated, as of August 2.

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