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Delta variant ravages Indonesia; 51,952 new cases reported in 24 hours

The country's GDP has shrunk by 2 per cent

indonesia-covid-volunteers-reuters After his work as a taxi driver dried up because of Indonesia's new coronavirus restrictions, Ardi Novriansyah offered his driving skills to help his home city's buckling medical system. Ardi, 41, is one of about 35 volunteers in Bogor, south of Jakarta, who recover the bodies of people that have died from COVID-19 while isolating at home., Ardi has received call outs 24 hours a day over the past month | Reuters

Indonesia on Saturday recorded 51,952 new cases of the coronavirus and 1,092 COVID-19 deaths. COVID-19 restrictions in the country were set to be lifted on July 20. The government is now contemplating whether or not to lift the restrictions. The country’s economy has been crumbling. The GDP has shrunk by more than 2 per cent as the coronavirus has hit the tourism, transportation and hospitality sectors. 

The COVID-19-related restrictions include closure of shopping malls and a work-from-home order for non-essential workers, on the islands of Java, Bali and 15 other cities.

“Decreased mobility does not indicate a decrease in cases. We are evaluating ... whether further extension is needed,” Economy, Senior Minister Luhut Pandjaitan told Reuters.  

The country's minister of maritime and investment said the government will announce its decision in a matter of days.

 “From the bottom of my heart, I want to apologise to all Indonesians if it is not optimal,” Pandjaitan said, referring to the possibility of extending the lockdown. 

The country’s hospitals are rapidly running out of essentials including oxygen cylinders. Hospital beds are rapidly running short too. Hospitals have, however, started taking emergency measures to expand capacity. As the Delta variant ravages the country, excavators are frantically digging burial spots. The country is being called Asia’s new epicentre of the virus by health experts.

Social media is pouring with requests to find hospital beds or oxygen tanks. So far, over 70,000 people in Indonesia have lost their lives due to the virus. And so far, only 6 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated. Last year, the country managed to keep the virus in check, however, according to a CNN report, misinformation and hoax reports regarding COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccine have been doing the rounds on social media. And because of the misinformation, people had not been taking COVID-19 symptoms seriously. 

The country's finance minister Sri Mulyani said that the budget for  COVID-19 recovery will be expanded from 699 trillion rupiah ($48.26 billion) to 744.74 trillion rupiah ($51.38 billion).

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