Indonesia faces oxygen crisis, a war like situation in covid : What you need to know

Picture courtesy : BBC news

1. The world's fourth most populous nation Indonesia is battling one of Asia's worst coronavirus outbreaks, fueled by 27,913 new infections on Saturday.

2. Increased travel and the highly contagious Delta variant have worsened the crisis.

3. More than 60 deaths have been reported in a hospital where the supply of the life-saving gas was almost exhausted. In response, the government asked the gas industry to increase the production of medical oxygen, said Health Ministry official.

4. Indonesia has had the worst COVID outbreak in South East Asia, with about 2.3 million positive cases and more than 60,000 deaths so far. However, experts warn that the overall numbers are much higher because of inadequate testing outside the capital Jakarta.

5. A lockdown was announced on the country's main island Java, as well as on the tourist island of Bali last week.

6. On Monday, two hospitals in the city of Bandung announced that they had run out of oxygen and had to reject new patients seeking emergency treatment. The situation is a war-like emergency.

7. In Jakarta, the daily number of funerals following COVID protocols jumped 10 fold since early May. There is also an increased number of infections and deaths among frontline health workers despite most of them being vaccinated.

8. Indonesia will change its entry rules for foreign visitors, from Tuesday, allowing only fully vaccinated people with negative COVID test reports. They have to spend 8 days in quarantine on arrival.