JAKARTA – Indonesia’s government has ordered producers to prioritize medical oxygen amid a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) surge and a shortage of oxygen in a number of cities.
Hospitals said they have almost exhausted supplies, with one reporting that 63 patients died as a result of oxygen shortages.
Indonesia is recording more than 25,000 new cases every day.
Increased travel and the highly contagious Delta variant have exacerbated the crisis.
Indonesia had the worst COVID outbreak in Southeast Asia, with about 2.3 million positive cases and more than 60,000 deaths so far.
However, experts warned that the overall numbers are potentially much higher because of severely inadequate testing outside this city.(BBC)
