COVID-19 Death Rises; Health Ministry Says 70% Unvaccinated
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9 March 2022 18:41 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia recently recorded an upward trend of COVID-19 deaths. Data of the Health Ministry on Tuesday, March 8, showed that 401 COVID-19 patients died, pushing the death toll up to 150,831.
Based on the weekly data, there were 2,095 death cases in the past seven days as of Tuesday. With the figure, Worldometer reported Indonesia’s weekly COVID-19 death rate as the highest in Asia.
The ministry’s spokesperson Siti Nadia Tarmizi said the death cases were dominated by the elderly, people with comorbidities, and those who had not been fully vaccinated.
"Seen from the cumulative data from January 21 to March 6, 70 percent of the 8,239 patients who died in hospitals had not been fully vaccinated, 56 percent of them were elderly, and 51 percent of them had comorbidities,” Siti explained in a statement, Wednesday, March 9.
Thus, the Health Ministry encouraged the public, especially the elderly, to undergo a complete vaccination course and have a booster dose. The national data also showed that the elderly who were exposed to COVID-19 face 3.5 times higher risk of death compared to non-elderly. The risk is even higher in the elderly with comorbidities such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and kidney failure.
Read: Tangerang Regency Logs New COVID-19 Death
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