Coronavirus kills 161 doctors in Indonesia

By Nicky Aulia Widadio

JAKARTA (AA) - At least 161 doctors in Indonesia have died due to the novel coronavirus, a medical association said on Tuesday.

“At least 11 doctors have died over the past week,” said Adib Khumaidi, Indonesian Medical Association’s (IDI) Mitigation Team leader.

"Most of the fatalities came from East Java with 33 cases and Jakarta with 24 cases,” Adib explained in a statement.

Both East Java and Jakarta are the provinces that account for nearly 40% of the nation’s total cases.

IDI also noted that 73% of the deaths reported after restrictions in high-risk provinces were lifted or relaxed in July.

The ideal doctor-patient ratio requires one doctor serves 2,500 people.

World Bank data showed that Indonesia has the second-lowest ratio of the doctor-patient ratio that is 1:2500.

As a result, the loss of 152 doctors and nine dentists is reducing the access for 380,000 people to doctors.

IDI also showed concerns about a potential spike in COVID-19 cases in the next two weeks due to long holidays last week.

According to Adib, the long holidays in May and August 2020 caused a spike in confirmed cases by 41% and overwhelmed health facilities.

He asked the public to undergo swab tests to detect the infection as early as possible, so it will help in reducing the burden on medical personnel.

So far, Indonesia has reported 418,375 cases with 349,497 recoveries and 14,416 deaths.

*Writing by Maria Elisa Hospita from Anadolu Agency's Indonesian language services.