Australian media outlet, The Sydney Morning Herald says Indonesia, including Bali is the next Covid-19 hotspot and that the government response to the pandemic has been ‘dreadful’.
The report blasted the Indonesia government saying ” the Indonesian government’s coronavirus response has been dreadful’ due to low testing rates and information that was withheld by authorities.
The outlet said that Indonesia “is flying under the radar” as for the last 8 of 10 days Indonesia has recorded over 1000 news cases.
On Thursday cases spiked in Bali to a new record of 66 new cases in a single day.
What was even more concerning was that 13% of the people tested on Thursday in Indonesia were confirmed to have the virus.
The report also looked at testing rates which showed Indonesia’s testing numbers are very alarming.
Russia – 107,445 tests per 1 million
United States – 80,750 tests per 1 million
Brazil – 11,302 tests per 1 million
India – 4530 tests per 1 million
Indonesia – 2123 tests per 1 million
The report went on to blast the Indonesian government, “Almost from the get-go, Indonesia’s government has handled this pandemic poorly”
“Early on the Health Minister declared that the power of prayer would protect the country. Then President Joko Widodo admitted information had been withheld from the public to avoid causing alarm. Then there were much-delayed lockdowns, an on-again off-again ban on people travelling home during major religious holidays, poor testing rates and now the easing of restrictions as case numbers rise.”
What concerns the Australian media outlet was the relaxing of restrictions even though cases are seeing a sharp rise.
“Public transport, flights, shopping centres, churches and mosques are all beginning to re-open in cities including in the capital, though there at least infection rates appear to be slowing,” said the Sydney Morning Herald.
By the looks of things, the Australian government won’t be allowing Aussies to travel to Bali anytime soon and for Indonesia, this could just be the beginning of the pandemic.
The media may be blasting Indonesia on the handling of Covid-19 but some say Australia has gone too far by locking its own citizens inside the country.
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