Indonesia is now epicentered in the covid-19 pandemic, with over 50,000 infected every day – and the number is rising. As a result, a number of volunteers now work for free to retrieve the dead, dig graves, make coffins and everything else that is needed to bury the more and more covid-19 dead.
– On Sunday we came with five coffins to the hospital in Klanten. They need many more than that. Usually, the hospital gets 70 deaths within a month. Now just as many have died in a few days, says Herlambang Yudhu Darmo (57), Hverfotograf, artist – and now volunteer coffin warehouse – to The Guardian.
A BREATH IN THE GROUND: The 64-year-old woman Yoyoh Sa’diah died of covid and has just been laid to rest by a busy grave worker, who is relaxing in a very hectic everyday life. Indonesia is now experiencing a highly contagious and deadly covid wave. Photo: Reuters / NTB
view more
Will honor the dead
Not long ago, Herlambang knew nothing about coffins. Now the photographer and artist know all about coffins longer, widths and thicknesses.
– Looking at the coffins brings death closer. At the same time, it calms me down because I understand that death is something that will occur, suddenly, he says.
Every day, Herlambang and other volunteers show up in front of a house in Yogyakarta to make coffins. The volunteers are lecturers, security guards, artists and the police. All to avoid that people who are now dying of covid have to lie in the heat and wait to be picked up to be buried.
– If we do not do this, the dead will lie and wait for hours. We do not want that. We want to honor the dead, says Herlambang.
Will rise more
In recent weeks, the number of new covid-infected people has skyrocketed in the vast country of Indonesia, which is the largest in South-East Asia and has over 270 million inhabitants. It is the delta variant that is responsible for the violent infection. In the last week, more than 50,000 new cases of infection are registered daily, in addition to the fact that more than 1,000 people died yesterday, according to Worldometer.
As if that is not enough, the number is probably much higher, as few people are tested, reports PreventionWeb. One of the reasons for this is the lack of covid tests, according to The Conversation.
“I assume that the number of covid cases will reach its peak at the end of July or early August, and that we will experience 200,000 new infections daily. But if the restrictions that have now been introduced are not effective enough, the country can experience as many as 400,000 daily new cases “, writes Dicky Budiman at Griffith University.
Infection from abroad
The country’s authorities have registered more than 70,000 dead since the pandemic started, but this is probably too low, sources say. The Guardian.
– The Indonesian government has struggled to maintain a liberal policy to keep the economy going to prevent people from starving – and to shut down society. They have also been criticized by the WHO for charging for the corona vaccine, says Olle Törnquist, Indonesia expert and professor at the University of Oslo.
He continues:
– In addition, everything got worse when many went back to the country to celebrate Eid al Fitr not long ago, which contributed to the delta wave that is now ravaging.
