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Indonesia Covid cases have been vastly underestimated, warn experts

An Indonesian girl walks past a sign that says "together against Covid" - Adek Berry/AFP
An Indonesian girl walks past a sign that says "together against Covid" - Adek Berry/AFP
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter

Indonesia may have reached one million Covid-19 cases – nearly ten times its official figure, claim senior epidemiologists from the Southeast Asian nation.

Dr Pandu Riono, from the University of Indonesia and Dr Dicky Budiman, a Sars expert who has worked for the World Health Organization, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the one million barrier had likely been breached but not recorded due to a large number of asymptomatic cases and the lack of testing. 

Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation officially has 115,056 and 5,388 deaths, making it the worst hit country in Southeast Asia. A tally of one million would put the country of 270 million in the top five in the world for total positive cases, alongside the US and Brazil.

Dr Dicky told the Australian paper the number of asymptomatic cases was a “very serious problem because [being] asymptomatic doesn’t mean they don’t have the disease in their body. So we need to put prevention as our main priority. Prevention is still better than being infected by Covid-19”.

Dr Pandu said he could not say exactly what the true number of cases was but "it’s a lot, maybe 10 times the current [official] rate. I think we still don’t know, it depends on assumptions because of the limited testing we have, and then the trend of new cases is increasing".

Women wear protective masks at a Jakarta market - Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg
Women wear protective masks at a Jakarta market - Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg

The Indonesian government has been strongly criticised since the start of the year for its lack of strategy to stop the spread of Covid-19 and has consistently been accused of underestimating the true numbers even as cemeteries have been filling to capacity. 

However, Erick Thohir, minister for state-owned enterprises, offered some hope on Tuesday when he announced that state-run pharmaceutical company Bio Farma was making final preparations to produce a coronavirus vaccine at scale, reported The Jakarta Globe.

The production of the vaccine, being made in collaboration with Chinese counterpart Sinovac Biotech, will not start until the completion of a phase three clinical trial in West Java later this month.

"I can confirm today that Bio Farma is fully ready to produce 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine a year and can be expanded to 250 million doses later on,” said Mr Erick.

“We will carry out a clinical trial and maximize production so that public vaccination can start early next year,” he said.

Initially the company will produce 40 million doses of the vaccine before being expanded to 100 million, Bio Farma President Director Honesti Basyir said on the company’s website.

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