LaporCovid-19: The Excess Death Rate In Java Rises 10 Times When COVID-19 Soars In July
JAKARTA - The Coalition of LaporCovid-19 residents recorded a 10-fold increase in excess deaths on the island of Java, when the spike in COVID-19 cases occurred in July 2021.
This is known based on research on excess death by sampling in several villages in West Java, Central Java, DI Yogyakarta, and East Java.
"Excess death in some villages is very high. The average is 10 times higher than the monthly death rate", said Co-Initiator of LaporCovid-19, Ahmad Arif, in a virtual discussion, Wednesday, September 8.
Arif gave an example, in one village in Majalengka, the average death of residents every month is 3 to 5 people. Last July, the death toll of residents in Majalengka reached 50 people.
Then in the village in Sidoarjo. In one of the villages there, on average, 3 people died per month for the last 5 years. It turned out that last July, 35 people had died.
Unfortunately, Arif said, many of the deaths that occurred during the surge in COVID-19 cases were not carried out by the COVID-19 protocol.
The death was not recorded as a case of COVID-19. In fact, the most likely death occurred in bodies exposed to COVID-19.
"Most of the people who died were not buried according to the COVID-19 protocol because they were not tested for COVID-19 before", said Arif.
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He also explained the high number of COVID-19 deaths who were self-isolating at home. Until now, 3,013 residents died in self-isolation.
According to Arif, this death rate was not recorded by the Ministry of Health in handling COVID-19. So, this will have an impact on the problem of overcoming the Coronavirus in Indonesia.
"We are very problematic with death data. This data can affect two things, namely on policies that can be problematic and also public risk perceptions which are also problematic", said Arif.