More than 10 Indonesian doctors died despite being fully vaccinated with 2 doses of vaccine

Medical staff take Covid-19 test samples from people in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia. Photo: THX/TTXVN

More than 10 doctors who received two doses of the vaccine have died from Covid-19, the Indonesian Medical Association said on June 25, as the Southeast Asian country struggles to cope with a surge in severe cases among health workers and new variants of the virus that are more contagious.

Over the past week, the number of infections nationwide has surged, surpassing the 2 million mark on June 21, causing hospitalization rates to rise to more than 75% in the capital and many affected areas.

"We are still updating the data and determining whether the other deaths were vaccinated," Mohammad Adib Khumaidi, the association's head of epidemic prevention, told reporters.

Indonesia is dealing with multiple variants of the virus, including the Delta variant first detected in India. Clinical symptoms suggest that this variant is responsible for the surge in cases in West Java.

"In West Java, the hospitalisation rate has exceeded 90%. Some places are already over 100%. Our health system is on the verge of collapse," said Eka Mulyana, a spokesman for the association in the province.

Dozens of cities in Central Java have also been placed under lockdown after the Delta variant was detected in local tests. The surge in cases is believed to be due to millions of people traveling to the region at the end of Ramadan despite travel bans.

Indonesian Medical Association representative Ahmad Ipul Syaifuddin said the mass movement of people has made it difficult to determine the source of the infection.

"We have no clues to trace and find the first person who spread the Delta variant because the test results came out about three weeks after the above event," he said.

In a related development, senior Chinese epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan affirmed on June 25 that Chinese vaccines are effective against the Delta variant, and called on people to continue getting vaccinated to create community immunity.

Guangdong is the first province in China to report a case of the Delta variant, which has a shorter incubation period and a longer recovery time, according to Nanshan.

“During the outbreak in Guangdong, all the vaccinated cases were not severe, while all the severe cases were unvaccinated,” said Feng Zijian, former deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, according to Mr. Feng, there are currently no exact figures on how many of these people are infected with the Delta variant.