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When it comes to coronavirus deaths, could Indonesia be Southeast Asia’s Italy?
- Analysts see the situation as a harrowing replay of what happened in Italy, which has Europe’s highest fatality count
- The failure to isolate affected areas and limit the population’s movement could see more than 140,000 deaths by May, according to a University of Indonesia estimate
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The figures coming out of Indonesia are grim – 469 dead from Covid-19, the highest fatality count in Asia outside China, and another 5,136 people infected.
But in the nation’s capital Jakarta, where two-thirds of the country’s cases originated, residents report young people continuing to socialise at street food stalls and cafes, despite President Joko Widodo introducing new social distancing measures on April 7.
Gatherings of more than five people have been banned, there are limits on the number of people who can use public transport, and public spaces have been closed – but a lack of enforcement of these measures threatens to undermine them, with dire consequences.
For analysts, it is a harrowing replay of what happened in Italy, where people continued to socialise at cafes and clubs in February as the coronavirus was quietly spreading in the country’s wealthy northern region.
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By March, infection numbers were soaring, with Italy reporting more than 165,000 cases as of Thursday. Some 21,600 people have died there, the second-highest death toll in the world after the United States’ 30,985.
Experts modelling the outbreak in Indonesia are warning Southeast Asia’s largest economy is heading down the same path as Italy – which failed to swiftly put in place measures to isolate affected areas and limit the population’s movement – and could be even harder hit.
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