Indonesia Has Deadliest Day in Pandemic a Day Before Vaccination Kicks Off
Indonesia Has Deadliest Day in Pandemic a Day Before Vaccination Kicks Off
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Indonesia reported the deadliest day in its coronavirus outbreak, before President Joko Widodo is set to kick off the mass vaccination program by getting the first shot on Wednesday.
The government confirmed that 302 people died from the disease known as Covid-19 in the 24 hours through midday Tuesday. The previous record was 258 deaths on Dec. 25. Some 10,047 tested positive for the virus during the same period Tuesday, bringing total cases to almost 850,000 so far.
Jokowi, as the president’s widely known, will receive the first dose of China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. vaccine in a televised event on Wednesday as he seeks to build public confidence in the shots. There remains uncertainty over the efficacy of the vaccine as four different protection rates have been reported.
Testing remains insufficient in the country. Its positivity rate, a measure of how many of those tested were confirmed to have the virus, eased to 25% on Tuesday, from 31% on Monday. That’s still far above the World Health Organization’s recommendation for the rate to be kept below 5%.
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