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Australia has committed to sending 20 million vaccine doses to the Indo-Pacific region and, as of last week, had already donated 360,000 to Pacific nations and East Timor. A quarter of the 1 million doses pledged to Fiji, which is battling its own outbreak, have already been shipped.
There has also been a promise of 1 billion shots to ASEAN countries from the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue group, which is made up of Australia, the United States, Japan and India. Japan announced this week that, despite its own outbreak on the brink of the Olympics, it was donating 2 million doses of AstraZenenca to Indonesia and 1 million each to Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. The US is also sending 1 million doses of Pfizer to Malaysia and the Philippines this month.
Australia is providing a $101.9 million package to support Indonesia’s national vaccines program.
“Australia has committed $100 million to the Quad Vaccine Partnership which will assist with delivery support for south-east Asia,” a spokesman for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said. DFAT estimates that Australia’s $130 million contribution will help COVAX deliver more than 1.8 billion doses.
“This support is complemented by Australia’s commitment to share at least 20 million additional doses for the Indo-Pacific region by mid-2022.”
“Within two weeks, Indonesia’s situation is beginning to resemble India,” Dr Faheem Younus, Chief of Infectious Diseases at the University of Maryland, warned on Thursday, following on from a Red Cross alert that the country was “on the edge of a COVID-19 catastrophe”.
On the same day as another new national record of 24,836 new infections on Thursday and a record daily death toll of 504, the WHO’s latest situation report made for dire reading.
It said the intensive care wards in two major centres for COVID-19 treatment – the Cengkareng Hospital in the west of Jakarta and Bekasi City Hospital in West Java, were at full capacity. Local media reported that bed occupancy in Surabaya, the second biggest city, was also at its limit, including in field hospitals.
Worryingly, only 21 per cent of older people have at least one vaccine dose and just 12 per cent have been fully inoculated. Many health workers – including 6000 in Aceh and 5000 in Papua – have not had a jab at all, said the WHO. Testing rates remain below par across most provinces.
The World Health Organisation warns the emergency rooms and even morgues are now at capacity in some parts of Indonesia. Credit:AP
Indonesia, which has reported 58,995 deaths to the virus, will now impose long-awaited lockdown measures across Java and Bali from Saturday until July 20. Malls and mosques will close and mask wearing is now mandatory. Those who can work from home must do so.
While he hopes it will push new cases back under 10,000 a day and prevent the health system from collapsing, Joko knows vaccination is the path out of the pandemic and has raised the benchmark.
“Until yesterday, the Covid-19 vaccination in Indonesia had reached 42 million doses,” he tweeted on Thursday.
“Our target this month is 34 million doses, August 43.7 million, September 53 million, October 84 million, November 80.9 million, and December 71.7 million.
“With hard work, this target is not difficult as long as there is a vaccine.”
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