Indonesia has surpassed Malaysia and Philippines with over 6200 Covid 19 cases and recorded the highest fatality in Southeast Asia with 535 deaths. Dangerously there are 173,000 people under surveillance of potential infects and 12,000 patients undergoing treatment for the deadly disease.
The warning bells were there early on, Malaysia was already experiencing cases and was taking preemptive measures to stop the spread with the first cluster which started from the Tabligh gathering where 17,000 religious followers from all over the region congregated in Seri Petaling. These people then headed to Jakarta for another gathering despite knowing members of their group had started the virus spread in Malaysia. Indonesia also had the heads up from the going-ons in the region where Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Philipines were all taking precautionary actions with locokdowns and Movement Control Orders, but the Indonesian Government was mulling by only imposing partial lockdown just weeks ago. In contrast, Malaysia was already under MCO since early April 14 and was then extended every 2 weeks for 6 weeks in total, these were necessary measures to basically keep the healthcare system from collapsing and in the meantime stop the spread as much as possible.
Its clear Jakarta has no grip on the situation, the recovery rate is at 10% which means many are still in the hospital and highly contagious. Reports are also coming out on how the government is under reporting and many deaths are being secretively buried. Jakarta incidentally has the biggest number of cases and has a population of 30 million the size of Malaysia with many living in poor conditions and shanty housings. Experts have warned President Jokowi on the rapid outbreak that could occur in these areas, which could then migrate to the rest of the archipelago of thousands of islands scattered all over the South Sea. Many of these places have poor sanitisation and medical facility, where treatment can be arduous. A tricky problem for the Jokowi government if things don’t get under control in the big cities. Governments that acted late are all paying the price, India and Japan are witnessing daily spikes that’s bogging their medical resources down, and Indonesia will be no exception to this predicament.
Even those who have seen the worse and now seeing the reduction in cases are not out of the woods yet, China is facing imported cases and placing mitigation processes to curb the spread. Europe is seeing the peak gradually coming down, US cases now constitute 30% overall global cases and is also starting to see the numbers dropping but these are not signs of full recovery or if we will ever see zero cases recorded. Until a vaccine is found we will never be able to eradicate the disease from the community.
Jokowi has upped his stance by introducing a nationwide lockdown but will still have to impose stricter measures. Social distancing will tough on the 230 million majority Muslims who will be welcoming the Ramadan month next week followed by Aidilfitri, but this is where the leader shows why he is the head of the country.
As all pandemics that has happened over the centuries, ”this will pass to’ and importantly we will need to know our conduct after this near apocalyptic event. What we need is a global alliance mandated by WHO which will have to come up with standards on how citizens should act in public post lockdowns and how each nation will have to device its own set of guidelines as well.
On thing’s for sure, life will never be normal from now until a vaccine is available, what the lockdowns and MCO’s have prepared is for, whats to expect next.
