(ANSA) - JAKARTA, 03 JUL - Over 50,000 soldiers and policemen have been deployed in Indonesia in the streets of the island of Java and Bali to enforce the new restrictions put in place in the face of the unprecedented wave of infections from Covid-19. Hundreds of checkpoints have been established, while mosques, parks, shopping malls and restaurants have been closed in the capital, Jakarta, and in the Java region. In Bali, closed to tourists, the police patrol restaurants and clubs, also closed.
The overwhelmed health system of the country is on the verge of collapse. Crowded hospitals send patients back, forcing desperate families to seek oxygen to care for the sick and dying at home.
Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world, has seen the number of daily cases more than quadruple in less than a month, with a new record of 27,913 cases in the last 24 hours. There are 493 needs, lower than the record of 539 recorded on Friday.
The country has so far recorded 2.25 million cases and 60,027 deaths, one of the most affected nations in Asia, but the figures are underestimated. According to the Ministry of Health, the spread of the Delta variant is at the origin of the increase in infections.
(HANDLE).
