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JAKARTA: The death toll in Indonesia from the new coronavirus surpassed the 1,000 mark on Tuesday, even as authorities said they were prepared to ease some social restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the virus in the country.
Indonesia confirmed its first two cases of the virus on March 2, far behind most of its neighbors, but its death rate has surpassed that of all its East Asian peers apart from China.
There were 16 new deaths and 484 new infections, bringing the country’s total to 1,007 deaths and 14,749 cases, health ministry official Achmad Yurianto said Tuesday.
Despite social restrictions slated until the end of May, the head of Indonesia’s coronavirus response task force, Doni Monardo, said Tuesday that people under the age of 45 could return to work in designated sectors.
“Why we are suggesting that company managers prioritize relatively young workers is due to the fact that those over 60 have the highest death rate,” Monardo said in a briefing at the palace, noting that the data showed that this group represented 45% of deaths while the age group 46-59 represented 40%.
Monardo said the rules on returning to work, aimed at preventing mass layoffs in Southeast Asia’s largest economy, applied to 11 sectors, including security and defense, health, food, finance, communication and logistics.
Epidemiologists criticized the Indonesian government for pressing to prematurely ease social restrictions without convincing evidence that the country is flattening the coronavirus curve or showing a slower infection rate.
Last week, Indonesia’s finance minister said the coronavirus pandemic had delayed poverty eradication efforts by a decade.
The government has been pressing to boost the economy and justified the move to encourage some people to return to work on the grounds that young people are more resistant to Covid-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
“We realize very well that (those) 45 years or less are productive forces that have greater immunity to resist this disease,” said the spokesman for the health ministry, Yurianto.
The median age in Indonesia, a country of more than 160 million, is only about 30 years old, according to the World Population Review.
The latest announcement, coming days after transport restrictions were also controversial, appeared to cause some confusion in the government.
Administrative and Bureaucratic Reforms Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said there were no plans to allow millions of Indonesians to return to work.
Meanwhile, President Joko Widodo called for a calibrated approach.
“The easing for PSBB (large-scale social constraints) must be carried out carefully and not in a hurry, all based on data from the field for the decision to be valid,” he said.
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