Indonesia’s death toll from COVID-19 has surpassed 1,000 as the country’s caseload continues to climb, according to the latest official data updated this afternoon.
During their daily briefing today, the COVID-19 task force announced that 16 people died between 12pm yesterday and 12pm today, putting the official total death toll from COVID-19 nationwide at 1,007.
As of today, 14,749 people in Indonesia have been confirmed to have been infected by the coronavirus. Among those, 3,063 have recovered.
While Indonesia’s death rate accounts for 6.8 percent of its caseload, experts have warned that official figures may not paint the whole picture for the country. In fact, there has been a lingering suspicion that COVID-19 deaths in Indonesia, including Jakarta, which has the highest caseload among other provinces in the country, are likely to have been underreported.
A recent Reuters report from April showed that there were 4,400 Jakarta funerals in March, which is around 40 percent higher than any month since at least 2018. Governor Anies Baswedan said he struggled to “find any other reason” to explain the surge than underreported COVID-19 deaths in the capital, which was likely due to the country’s low testing capability.
Furthermore, another Reuters report found that, by the end of April, more than 2,200 Indonesians died with acute COVID-19 symptoms but had not tested positive for the disease.
