Indonesia becomes the new epicenter of covid-19 in Asia, surpassing India

(CNN) – Indonesia reported 54,517 new cases of Covid-19, authorities reported Wednesday, a record for a single day and a red flag for the world’s fourth most populous country.

The island country, which has some 270 million inhabitants, now registers more cases per day than India, which was badly hit by covid-19, making Indonesia the new epicenter of the pandemic in Asia. If the spread doesn’t slow down, experts say it could bring the Indonesian healthcare system to the brink of disaster.

Some fear that the situation is worse than the figures show, because not enough people are being tested for the virus. A poll posted on saturday revealed that almost half of the 10.6 million inhabitants of Jakarta, the capital, could have contracted covid-19.

An insufficient answer

The experts affirm Indonesia is now reaping the costs of failing to enforce strict closures or investing sufficiently in effective contact tracing systems. At first, authorities did not realize how quickly the virus had spread in this latest wave, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin previously told CNN.

Authorities are concerned that hospitals will not be able to cope with the growing number of patients requiring hospitalization, especially as hospitalization spreads. delta variant of the virus, more infectious. Another 991 Covid-19 fatalities were also reported on Wednesday, bringing the total death toll to 69,210.

The state agency Antara News reported that 90,000 of Indonesia’s 120,000 hospital beds are occupied. Oxygen prices soared to end of June, and now it seems that some hospitals are running out of this input. More than 60 people died in a single center a early this month after a Java hospital nearly depleted its oxygen supply, though a hospital spokesperson could not confirm whether all the dead had contracted Covid-19.

The islands of Bali and Java – home to Jakarta, the densely populated capital – were placed under emergency closure last week.

The authorities also have difficulty vaccinating a sufficient number of people. Indonesia has only vaccinated 5.5% of its population, according to CNN’s covid-19 vaccine tracking. In Jakarta, around 2 million people – about 18% of the city’s population – have been fully vaccinated, according to data from the Health Ministry.

President Joko Widodo said on Wednesday that vaccines are “Indonesia’s hope to recover from this global health crisis.”

Residents in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, line up to refill oxygen tanks on July 15. (Credit: Kriswanto / AFP via Getty Images)

“We must guarantee fair and equitable access to vaccines, as we see that there is still a large gap in access to vaccines throughout the country,” he said, according to Antara.

On Tuesday, nearly 3.5 million doses of AstraZeneca’s covid-19 vaccine arrived in Indonesia as part of the global COVAX vaccine delivery program. Indonesia has received more than 14 million vaccines through the program, according to state media

Covid-19 outbreaks in Asia

Indonesia is one of several countries in the region battling covid-19 outbreaks and striving to vaccinate its population. India continues to report tens of thousands of new cases a day. Myanmar’s ruling junta reported 7,083 new cases and 145 COVID-19-related deaths on Wednesday, but social welfare groups fear the real situation has gotten much worse since the February military coup.

In Myanmar, many of those suffering from symptoms choose to stay home because they do not trust the hospitals run by the military. Others say that people have been turned away from the centers who have run out of intensive care beds and cannot take in more patients.

Cases are also increasing in Malaysia. The country’s Ministry of Health reported 11,618 new infections on Wednesday, the highest total in a single day since the start of the pandemic. The Bernama state news agency reported that nearly 435,000 doses of vaccines were administered on Wednesday, a daily record in Malaysia’s vaccination campaign.

Thailand is also suffering its worst outbreak of the pandemic. To combat the peak, a government advisor endorsed a plan to mix doses of different vaccines against the coronavirus, despite the discomfort of the population. The strategy has not been extensively tested.

In Northeast Asia, Japan and South Korea are also struggling to contain the cases, largely because they lag behind Western nations in their vaccination campaigns. Several regions of South Korea have enacted new social distancing measures as the number of daily cases has reached new records.

Japan’s capital Tokyo remains under a state of emergency that will last through the Olympics, which begin next week. The games will be held without spectators due to the pandemic.

With input from Amy Sood, Helen Regan, and Kocha Olarn.