Indonesia battles skyrocketing Covid-19 cases as hospitals overflow

JAKARTA. KAZINFORM Indonesia is battling skyrocketing Covid-19 case numbers as the Red Cross warned on Tuesday of the collapse of hospitals.

photo: QAZINFORM

It is the country in Southeast Asia hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, and on Monday registered 20,694 infections and 423 deaths, EFE reports.

«Urgent increases are needed in medical care, testing and vaccinations as Indonesia teeters on the edge of a Covid-19 catastrophe,» the international body said in a statement Tuesday.

«The more dangerous and deadly Delta Covid-19 variant is fueling infections that are skyrocketing across Indonesia, overwhelming hospitals and oxygen supplies in Jakarta and other areas of the country,» it added.

Indonesian Red Cross Secretary General Sudirman Said in the statement said its hospital in Bogor, West Java, «is overflowing.»

Across the country, 47 percent of hospital beds are occupied, and 93 percent in the capital Jakarta, according to official figures.