Indonesia‘s health minister has urged the country’s people to pray that they continue to remain coronavirus-free as the nation comes in for heavy criticism for not doing enough to combat the disease.
Just 104 Indonesians have been tested out of a population of 270 million, despite neighbouring countries including Australia reporting multiple cases.
Indonesia is yet to report a single confirmed case of the virus, which has spread across the globe in recent weeks with a death toll of more than 1700.
However, that clean bill of health may change within days following reports two men may have contracted the virus.
It was an emotional reunion for these women at Indonesian’s Juanda International airport on Saturday after a student (wearing face mask) spent time in quarantine following the outbreak
Indonesian health minister Terawan Agus Putranto has since defended the country’s handling of the outbreak and insists they remain on high alert with steps put in place to detect the coronavirus.
‘We say prayers together that no coronavirus enters,’ he told reporters on Monday.
‘We continue to pray that God gives protection to our country.’
When quizzed about why so few tests had been conducted in the fourth most-populated country in the world, Putranto cited ‘efficiency in budgeting’.
‘We don’t test everybody. You guys [reporters at the press conference] who are now wearing masks, would you like to be tested? We have to see someone’s travel advisory. We have to be rational and efficient,’ he said.
Worshippers at the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta pray their country remains free of the virus
The new coronavirus has killed at least 1,775 people and infected more than 71,440 globally
Like Australia, Indonesia has also shut down all flights to and from mainland China in response to virus fears and is conducting surveillance at 135 entry points across the country.
It comes after a US study by Harvard University public health researchers found Indonesia should be impacted by the coronavirus and could have undetected cases, citing its extensive air links to China and the city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.
More than two million people visit Indonesia from China each year.
Despite no confirmed cases, Indonesia has steps in place to monitor and watch for signs of the virus. Pictured are health workers taking part in a simulation exercise in Denpasar
Nearly 1,800 people across the world have now died from the killer coronavirus, or COVID-19
The study’s co-author described the possibility of Indonesia being free from the virus as ‘statistically improbable’.
‘If Indonesia was equally sensitive in detecting infected travellers as the high capacity countries [such as Singapore] in our statistical sample, then given the travel volume from Wuhan [to Indonesia], there is less than a 2.5 per cent chance they would have failed to detect any cases,’ Harvard Professor Marc Lipsitch told Fairfax.
‘At this stage focusing on travellers [who might be infected] is probably not the top priority. If there are cases in the country, it’s more important they find them and stop them transmitting.’
More than 71,000 have caught the virus, including 454 on a cruise ship quarantined off Japan
Putranto slammed the study’s findings and described the report as ‘insulting’ for Indonesia.
‘The bottom line is that we’re following international standards,’ he told reporters last week.
‘We’re not hiding anything.’
Indonesian health minister Terawan Agus Putranto (pictured) has defended his country’s handling of the outbreak. The island nation is yet to report any confirmed cases
Source: dailymail UK
