Indonesia - one of the worlds most populous and far-flung nations - only just closed its borders, but experts fear this came too late. As the BBC's Resty Woro Yuniar and Aghnia Adzkia report, its healthcare system will not be able to cope amid warnings that official figures mask the true scale of virus cases.

It may have only registered its first coronavirus case in March but now Indonesia is second only to China for coronavirus deaths in Asia. Among the dead are at least 12 health workers, including two doctors in their 30s.

Novita Purwanti and her fellow nurses, at a public health centre in Bandung, West Java, are all too aware of this. They pooled funds to buy raincoats and two medical goggles to share.

"We disinfected the raincoats so that we can use them again, while we're waiting for the protective kits from the health agency to arrive," she explains.

"I can't buy a N95 mask, it's too expensive and they are hard to find."

She is on the frontline in the fight against coronavirus that is feared to be widespread and under the radar in the world's largest archipelago.

"I'm stressed. I can't sleep. I always touch patients, despite not knowing for sure whether they're carriers or not," nurse Novita, a mother of two young children, says.

A study by the London-based Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases released last week estimates that as few as 2% of Indonesia's coronavirus infections have been reported. That would bring the true number to more than 89,000 but a serious lack of testing, as with many other nations, means we will never be sure.




"Maybe some of them have not been tested. Or maybe some had been tested but the results have not come back," he said.

Children are also among the growing death toll in Indonesia, according to the Paediatric Society. "We are having to try and keep track ourselves," says Dr Aman Pulungan the group's president.

"We know of at least four child deaths. The youngest was 3 years old."

Archipelago woes

Indonesia's size and remoteness, puts it in a position that very few other nations face. It is made up of some 17,000 islands and islets and even in good times its healthcare system is poor, particularly in remote areas.

On average there is just one hospital bed per 1,000 people in Indonesia according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). China has four times as many, while South Korea has 11 times more hospital beds.

In 2017, the WHO found Indonesia had four doctors per 10,000 people. Italy had 10 times more, on a per capita basis. South Korea has six times more doctors.

Indonesia's decentralised system of government and messy bureaucracy also means rolling out one healthcare message or policy is challenging.

It also has one of the lowest health expenditures in the region.





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Komentar TS:
18 Maret 2020

Ane pikir pada saat ASN diliburkan salah satu langkah menuju lockdown. Ane sebagai pekerja lepas lapang dada menerima keputusan pemerintah dan manut. Ya ane pikir cuma makan waktu dua minggu lockdown. Ternyata kebijakan pemerintah sangat2 gak jelas dan blunder banyak dimana2. Bikin virus ini gak jelas berakhir sampai kapan. Belum blunder yang discount pariwisata, dan congor siap hadapi Corona. Belum lagi TKA asing bebas masuk Indonesia disaat kita disuruh WFH.

Setelah mempetimbangkan semuanya. Ane sekarang justru siap hadapi seleksi alam yang dikemudikan pemerintah. Karena ini sudah melewati batas waktu kesabaran ane, ane pikir cuma 2 minggu ane dan keluarga menderita, ternyata gak tahu sampai kapan


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