‘It will get very bad’: Experts warn on Indonesia COVID surge

Government is blaming the Delta variant for latest surge in cases, but experts say policy failures are to blame.

Health officials in Indonesia are blaming the emergence of the Delta variant first detected in India for a massive surge in COVID-19 that has seen the number of daily new cases more than triple in recent weeks, but some of the country’s leading infectious disease experts say the real reasons are closer to home. “The spread of this virus variant is very fast,” Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin admitted during an online seminar on Sunday, adding that the variant had got a foothold in Indonesia through its ports. “Because many seaports in Indonesia carry goods and many also come from India, they enter from there,” he said.