A lot more than 2,200 Indonesians who died may experienced COVID-19 symptoms, data shows
28 April, 2020
A lot more than 2,200 Indonesians have died with acute symptoms of COVID-19 but weren't recorded as victims of the condition, a Reuters overview of data from 16 of the country's 34 provinces showed.
Three medical specialists said the figures indicated the national death toll was apt to be much higher than the official figure of 765.
Indonesia has among the lowest testing rates on the globe plus some epidemiologists say which has managed to get harder to get a precise picture of the extent of infections in the world's fourth most populous country.
The most up to date data from the 16 provinces shows there were 2,212 deaths of patients under supervision because they have acute coronavirus symptoms. Indonesia's health ministry uses the acronym PDP to classify these patients when there is absolutely no other clinical explanation because of their symptoms.
The info is collated by provincial agencies daily or weekly from figures given by hospitals, clinics and officials overseeing burials. It had been obtained by Reuters by checking websites, speaking with provincial officials and reviewing World Health Organization (WHO) reports.
The 2 2,212 deaths were as well as the deaths of 693 persons who had tested positive for COVID-19 in those provinces and were officially recorded as victims of the condition.
The 16 provinces take into account over three-quarters of the country's 260 million population.
A senior member of the government's COVID-19 taskforce, Wiku Adisasmito, did not dispute the Reuters findings but declined to touch upon the quantity of coronavirus victims he believed were found among the patients classified as PDP.
He said lots of the 19,897 suspected coronavirus sufferers in Indonesia was not tested as a result of long queues of specimens awaiting processing at under-staffed laboratories.
Some persons had died before their sample was analysed, he said.
"If indeed they have thousands or a huge selection of samples they have to test, which one will they give the priority? They'll supply the priority to the people that remain alive," he told Reuters.
Adisasmito is the most senior public health expert on Indonesia's COVID-19 taskforce and the press office of President Joko Widodo typically refers queries to the taskforce.
Based on the Ministry of Health's latest COVID-19 guidelines, patients classified as PDP are people that have acute respiratory illnesses for which there is absolutely no clinical explanation apart from the new coronavirus.
To be classified as PDP, patients must also have travelled to a country, or a location in Indonesia, where in fact the coronavirus has taken hold within 2 weeks of becoming sick.
"I believe the vast majority of PDP deaths were due to COVID-19," said Pandu Riono, an epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia, citing their COVID-19 symptoms and that there is no other identified reason behind death.
Some senior government members played down the risk of an outbreak in January and February with some suggesting that prayer, herbal treatments and hot weather would help defend against the virus. The death toll is currently the best in Asia after China, according to a Reuters tally.
BURIALS
The provincial data follows a written report by Reuters this month that burials in the administrative centre Jakarta in March were up by 40 per cent on any month since at least January 2018.
The city's governor told Reuters that coronavirus was the only likely explanation.
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