Seven months after its first coronavirus case, Indonesia—one of the world’s most populous countries—is largely flying blind due to one of the lowest Covid-19 testing rates
Seven months since its first coronavirus case was reported, the world’s fourth most populous country is still largely flying blind.
Indonesia, an archipelago nation of 270 million people, has tested a smaller share of its population than every other major economy. It has conducted Covid-19 tests on eight out of every 1,000 people—fewer than less-developed Philippines, which has tested 34 people per 1,000, according to Our World in Data, a nonprofit research project based at the University of Oxford., has tested 13 out of 1,000 people—about 60% higher than Indonesia.
The result: Policy makers and public-health experts in Indonesia—which with more than 11,000 deaths from Covid-19 has more than any country in East Asia—don’t quite know where and how widely the virus is spreading, making it. Low testing also is an impediment to deciding when and where to restrict or reopen economic activity.
Countries use different methodologies to calculate national testing totals, so country-to-country figures may not be directly comparable. Nonetheless, they give a general indication of the degree to which different governments are tracking the pandemic.
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