The UN has designated Indonesia as the epicenter of COVID in Asia due to countries’ ‘lack of solidarity’ and the slow pace of vaccination

The top United Nations official in Indonesia, Valerie Julliand, underlined the “Lack of global solidarity” and the slowness in the vaccination process as the main reasons why The country is currently the epicenter of COVID-19 infections on the Asian continent.

Through the application of restrictive measures, Indonesia had succeeded in mitigating the effects of the pandemic, like many other countries in Southeast Asia, according to Julliand, although since May the health crisis has become “more urgent” and cases have quintupled, as stated in a UN statement.

The point is that the country had made “remarkable progress” in reducing poverty over the past decade, but the emergence of the coronavirus has delayed some of these achievements, and more so in the most disadvantaged segments of the world. population and, also, among women.

A few days ago, Indonesia overtook India and Brazil as the country with the most daily infections, which placed it as the current epicenter of cases in Asia, and even this Wednesday l The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that in the country there had been recorded more than 77,500 deaths from the disease.

THE MAIN REASONS

Julliand targeted the neglect on the part of society as one of the reasons for the uncontrollable increase in cases, although the slowness of the vaccination process also played a fundamental role, since by mid-July, only 6% of the population had received a dose.

In this regard, he underlined the low coverage among the elderly and other groups vulnerable to the disease. Although Indonesia got a “relatively good supply” from the international body COVAX, “the lack of global solidarity” was instrumental.

“Rich countries have stockpiled vaccines. Sad as it is, Indonesia is certainly not the worst off; only 1.1 percent of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose of immunization», Denounced the worker of the United Nations in the Asian country.

Against this backdrop, Indonesia introduced strict movement restrictions in Java and Bali in early July and has since extended these measures, but has yet to enforce movement restrictions or blockades nationally, like others. countries have done so in a similar situation.

To resolve the situation, the UN has provided “technical and operational support” and will take a particular interest in prevention, it will therefore provide the means to carry out tests in terms of “equipment, protocols and training”.

“We have facilitated the arrival of 16.2 million doses of vaccines via COVAX facilities to date and we are helping their dissemination, because the logistics of the cold chain are complex in an archipelago of 17,000 islands”, targeted the UN.

“There are problems that can be contained in a country. But when it comes to viruses, they do not recognize borders and do not differentiate between rich and poor countries, ”said Julliand.

(with EP information)

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