Doctor’s death exposes risks of virus battle

When Indonesian doctor Ratih Purwarini (pic) was buried at dusk in a Jakarta cemetery, only her son Firos saw her plastic-wrapped coffin used for coronavirus victims lowered into the grave.

The rest of the family, instructed to keep a safe distance, watched the proceedings from afar.

Two weeks earlier, the healthy 46-year-old mother of two was laughing at a family outing in Bandung.

Now she is a number on a growing list, one of 26 Indonesian doctors killed by Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.

“I regret asking her to go to medical school, ” said Bambang Purnomo, her devastated 72-year-old father. “I honestly still cry whenever I think of her.”

A month after recording its first case, Indonesia, with 3,293 infections and 280 deaths, has the highest death toll in Asia after China, where the virus emerged late last year, although health experts fear it could be much higher.

The deaths of 26 doctors and nine nurses battling the pandemic in Indonesia has fanned anxiety about a healthcare system ill-prepared to tackle it.

“Indonesia was not well prepared at the beginning, and we also didn’t have much personal protective equipment (PPE), ” said Prijo Sidipratomo of the Indonesian medical association. “That is why so many doctors have died.”

President Joko Widodo offered condolences and praised the dedication of the doctors who died.

He announced financial incentives for medical professionals and payouts for the families of workers killed by the disease.

But Widodo has resisted strict lockdowns, instead urging Indonesians to adopt social distancing measures and stay home.

“The country was already exposed to the virus, but no one realised until March, ” Sidipratomo added.

Now the world’s fourth-most populous nation is racing against time to contain the spread.

Hospitals across the archipelago are chronically ill-equipped, lacking beds, medical staff and intensive care facilities, forcing some doctors to fashion makeshift gear, using raincoats and their own masks.

“The government has asked all industries to make PPE in Indonesia, but now we are competing with the virus itself, ” said Sidipratomo. — Reuters