Indonesia Says Looming Haze Can Worsen Health of Virus Patients

(Bloomberg) --

Stinging smoke from illegal burning of forest land in Indonesia poses a new risk for coronavirus patients and may hamper efforts to contain the pandemic in the world’s fourth-most populous nation.

Authorities have already detected more than 800 hotspots and 119 forest fires at the start of the dry season, and a worsening air quality may increase the fatality rate from Covid-19 disease, according to Wiendra Waworuntu, communicable disease prevention and control director at Indonesia’s health ministry.

“There is a research showing the correlation between high death rate and the level of pollution in an area impacted by Covid-19,” Waworuntu said. The government should prepare large evacuation rooms fitted with air purifiers for virus patients and initiate steps to prevent the outbreak of wild fires, she said.

The emergence of haze, an annual feature from illegal burning to clear land for palm oil and paper plantations, may slow efforts to curb the pandemic that’s killed 943 people and infected more than 13,000 in Indonesia. Last year, the country had to open temporary clinics to treat thousands of people suffering from acute respiratory illness triggered by haze, which also caused air traffic disruptions.

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A potential haze outbreak may also cause a scarcity of N95 masks, used by health workers now, as normal face covers will prove ineffective against smoke from fires, Waworuntu said.

With satellite images showing about 855 hotspots as on Thursday, the government should consider weather modification to douse the fires, especially over the vast peat lands in Riau and West Kalimantan, said Haris Gunawan, deputy for research and development at Indonesia’s Peatland Restoration Agency.

The fires in Indonesia, which are mostly lit to clear land, are extremely difficult to extinguish because of peat below the soil surface, which burns like coal and can smolder for months.

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