Critics accuse government of incompetence, denial and dragging its feet in response to pandemic
From her home in Pamekasan, East Java, Dr Ratna Hermawati can hear the names of the dead echoing out across her neighbourhood. . A new Covid-19 fatality is announced from a speaker at the nearby mosque at least five times a day. Ratna would normally be at work, managing the hospital’s overstretched isolation rooms, but, after testing positive for Covid, she has been required to stay home.
“I know my fellow medical workers are trying our best to use whatever we have to serve our patients,” she said. Nine other doctors in the hospital are also infected, just as the wards are busier than ever.
