Indonesia caught between surge and slow vaccine rollout

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Sri Dewi stood in the graveyard with her family, waiting their turn to bury her brother. He suffered a stroke and needed oxygen, but there wasn't any in a hospital overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.

“We took him to this hospital, but there was no room for him,” said Dewi. “The hospital was out of oxygen.”

The family finally bought an oxygen tank at a shop and brought the brother home, but he died later that evening.

After a slow vaccination rollout, Indonesia is now racing to inoculate as many people as possible as it battles an explosion of COVID-19 cases that have strained its health care. But inadequate global supply, the complicated geography of the world's largest archipelago nation, and hesitancy among some Indonesians stand as major roadblocks.

Fueled by travel in May during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, and the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus first found in India, the most recent spike has pushed some hospitals to the limits. Over the past two weeks, the seven-day rolling average of daily cases rose from over 8,655 to 20,690. Nearly half of those who are PCR tested return positive results.

Even those numbers are an undercount, with almost 75% of provinces reporting a testing rate below the recommended benchmark of 1 test per 1,000 people, according to the World Health Organization.

The impact is obvious across Java, Indonesia’s most populated island. In mid-June, hospitals began to erect plastic tents to serve as makeshift intensive care units, and patients waited for days before being admitted. Oxygen tanks were rolled out on the sidewalk for those lucky enough to receive them, while others were told they would need to find their own supply.

Away from the hospitals, new land continues to be cleared for the...