Coronavirus: Indonesia -- don't wear a mask, dig graves

Back in July, I took a look at the impact of COVID-19 on Indonesia. There was some weird topic of using eucalyptus necklaces to deal with the virus. At the time, the country only had 74,000 recorded cases, but there were concerns that the numbers were much higher due to under-testing (their testing ranked in the 160th range at the time). Fast forward a couple months since that post and their testing is still in the 160th range. Though their testing has much to be desired, the country is taking the virus seriously (other than perhaps that eucalyptus necklace and prayer ideas).

South China Morning Post (Sep 22nd) reports about what the country is doing: 

Under the stricter regulations, known locally by the acronym PSBB, most workplaces have to keep the bulk of their employees at home, and while shopping centres can remain open, no dining in is allowed. Residents caught outside without masks will be tasked with social work or receive a fine that starts from 250,000 rupiah.

The restrictions will be in place until Sunday, but could be extended until October 11 if there is a significant increase in the number of Covid-19 cases – a possibility that deeply worries Yosef.

. . . Dicky Budiman, a researcher pursuing his doctorate in global health security and pandemics at Griffith University in Australia, pointed to statistics from the Jakarta administration showing that as of Monday, almost 13 per cent of residents had tested positive for Covid-19. Restrictions should ideally be enforced for two to three months if that rate was above 10 per cent, he said. 

Note that the plan is to maybe have restrictions until October 11th. Based on when the article was written, that is almost 3 weeks whereas Dicky Budiman is saying that restrictions should be enforced for 2 to 3 months. 

The country is coming up with some unique punishments for those who brak the PSBB.

CNN (Sep 17th) reports: 

Villagers who refuse to wear masks are being forced to dig graves for victims of Covid-19 by local authorities in one part of rural Indonesia, in the hopes that a little bit of manual labor and empathy will convince others to do their part to help stop the pandemic.

Three middle-aged men and five minors in Cerme district of Gresik Regency, East Java, were given the unique punishment on September 9, authorities said.

. . . With cases still climbing, the city's health infrastructure may be nearing a breaking point. The emergency units in all 20 Jakarta hospitals approved to treat Covid-19 patients are full, officials said Monday.

I think a sure sign that a country is having problems is when hospitals are full with COVID-19 patients.

I've read a couple articles about how the city of Jakarta is running out of graves. The country does have over 10,000 deaths related to COVID-19 of which about 16% are in Jakarta. So say around 2,000 deaths are causing a city of nearly 10 million to run out of grave sites? Call me skeptical.