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Indonesia Coronavirus Measures Looser Than Neighbors Despite More Fatalities

VOA News

   Indonesia has the highest number of fatalities caused by the
   coronavirus in Southeast Asia, but it has not followed its neighbors
   that have issued travel bans, tested widely for the virus, and urged
   citizens to stay home from work and school nationwide.

   Analysts are predicting a threat to the political prospects of
   President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, if the world's third largest
   democracy does not take more aggressive measures.

   Indonesia had 59 fatalities and 579 cases of COVID-19 infections as of
   Monday, according to the Indonesian Ministry of Health. The government
   has tested only about 2,000 out of its 260 million people, however,
   compared to hundreds of thousands of tests being done in smaller
   nations, while also resisting calls to mandate restrictions on movement
   and commerce that could further hurt the economy.

   That will change as Indonesia is importing hundreds of thousands of
   test kits. After initially saying the archipelago nation had no
   coronavirus cases, the government has admitted it withheld some details
   about the cases that eventually emerged.

   "But there is still a lack of cross-government coordination, and no
   clear and transparent plan for how to combat Covid-19," said Ben Bland,
   director of the Southeast Asia program at the Lowy Institute, in an
   analysis. He added, "One of the reasons that local governments started
   to implement their own measures was because they were losing faith in
   Jokowi's ability to manage the outbreak."

   Among the local measures taken, the capital city of Jakarta closed
   schools, movie theaters and other entertainment sites, and it urged
   residents to work from home. That is difficult, though, when according
   to the World Bank, more than half of the citizens work in blue-collar
   agricultural or industrial businesses that can't be done remotely.

   Nationally the central government has formed a health task force and
   issued a regulation granting limited emergency powers, including the
   ability to appropriate resources to fight the virus. It has ordered and
   distributed more medical supplies, as well as converted an old athletic
   village in central Jakarta, Southeast Asia's biggest city, into an
   emergency hospital.

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