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Indonesia faces oxygen shortage as COVID cases quadruple | Coronavirus pandemic News

The government has asked oxygen producers to send all supplies to hospitals, as dozens are dying due to shortages.

Indonesia is struggling with one of the most serious outbreaks of Asian coronaviruses, as more than a quarter of new cases have been quadrupled in a month due to severe oxygen shortages in several areas.

At least 33 people were killed at a hospital in Yogyakarta when supplies ran out over the weekend and on Monday the government asked oxygen producers to send all supplies to hospitals and clinics.

The highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 has greatly increased infections across the country.

On Monday, Indonesia reported 29,745 new infections and 558 deaths, both daily records, after the government ordered new virus curves last week in the capital Jakarta, across Java, and the holiday island of Bali.

Mosques, parks, shopping malls and restaurants were closed in the hot spots, and non-essential workers were ordered to work from home.

Jakarta public affairs analyst Bambang Harymurti has told Al Jazeera that the situation on the ground is deteriorating.

“If you look around, a lot of hospitals are closed because they are so crowded that they don’t accept any more patients and they ask people to give them oxygen. The government is asking them not to buy oxygen because hospitals need it,” he said.

“And the truth is that the authorities have said that the police should go into many places by Thursday if this situation is in line for people to buy oxygen and essential medicines. [continues]. The prices of medicines are very high now. “

A quadrupled case

The world’s fourth-most populous nation has more than quadrupled in less than a month and has 2.3 million cases and 61,140 deaths.

This figure is believed to be very small due to low tests and poor tracing measures.

Indonesia’s health care system has been on the verge of collapse, while blocked hospitals are pushing patients away, forcing desperate families to seek out oxygen tanks to care for patients and those who die at home.

Daily COVID burials in Jakarta have grown 10 times since May, and patients are increasingly isolated at home.

The independent data group LaporCOVID said at least 269 people in 10 provinces had died in isolation. The Jakarta health agency reported that 45 people were killed at home on Friday alone.

There are no official statistics on the number of COVID deaths at home.




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