Indonesia tops Brazil in reporting highest daily Covid deaths

Delta variant of Coronavirus has created  havoc in Indonesia. Fuelled by the spread of the more virulent Delta the country has reported more new coronavirus cases than any country in the world in recent days. According to reports, It was second only to Brazil in terms of the number of deaths. Indonesia has topped Brazil in reporting the highest number of daily deaths attributed to Covid-19, even as new cases start to ease in the Southeast Asian country. There were 1,093 fatalities in Indonesia in the 24 hours through midday Sunday, Health experts are calling Indonesia the new epicentre of the pandemic.

Indonesia -- the world’s fourth-most populous country -- has reported more than 2.8 million cases and 73,582 deaths overall. That’s still dwarfed by the more than 540,000 dead in Brazil. The U.S. has the highest documented cases at 34 million and deaths at 609,000. Deaths of doctors from COVID-19 in Indonesia rose sharply in the first half of July. A total of 114 doctors died during July 1-17, the highest number reported for any period of similar length and more than 20% of the 545 total doctor deaths from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, officials from Indonesia's doctors association (IDI) said. Mahesa Paranadipa, a senior IDI official, said the association was concerned that the medical system may not be able to cope. "We are worried about the potential of a functional collapse," Paranadipa said. 

The surging cases of Covid-19 have overwhelmed hospitals and depleted the country’s oxygen supply, even as the government has added beds and imported oxygen tanks. According to crowdsourcing platform LaporCovid19, at least 650 people have died at home while self-isolating as they could not find beds in hospitals.