Having recorded it's first COVID-19 case at the end of December 2019, India continues to grapple with the pandemic. Till date, these have been a nearly 3.1 crore COVID-19 cases reported in the country, with global records being set during the second wave earlier this year. But as cases in India drop, another nation has taken over as Asia's virus epicenter.
According to reports, daily infections in Indonesia have exceeded 40,000 repeatedly over the last few days. It much be noted that Indonesia's population is also around one fifth that of India. There are also concerns that the Delta variant might be spreading in parts of the country.
In its COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Update released on Tuesday, the World Health Organisation said that an overall rise in COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant is reported across all WHO regions. According to this data, while India has reported a 7% decrease, Indonesia saw a 44% increase in cases.
As per the WHO report, the highest numbers of new deaths were reported from India (6,035 new deaths) which saw a 4% decrease while Indonesia saw 5,882 new deaths which translates to a 71% increase. Keep in mind however, India's tally recent single day spike in the death toll (there were 2,020 deaths on Tuesday) came from a reconciliation of numbers carried out by Madhya Pradesh.
According to a Nikkei Asia report, this is aside from Indonesia's poor record of testing and tracing COVID-19 cases. While India's positivity rate hovers around 2% at present, Indonesia has reportedly stayed around the 30% mark over the past week.
Around 90% of the country's medical staff have received two doses of China's Sinovac vaccine. Despite this, hundreds have been infected, reducing medical manpower amid the surge in cases. Indonesia said last week that it would offer medical workers a COVID-19 booster shot from Moderna.
