Coronavirus stigma runs deep and dangerous in Indonesia

WEST JAVA, Indonesia: When Ari Harifin Hendriyawan's mother tested positive for the coronavirus, their neighbours brought a hammer and nails and boarded up the lane.

For months Indonesia has struggled to stem a rise in transmission, with nearly 229,000 cases and a death toll of 9,100, the second highest in Asia after India. It also has one of the world’s lowest testing rates.Indonesia’s COVID-19 taskforce spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito said the stigma those infected face remains a problem. He said the government was doing what it could to counter that.

From across Indonesia, more than a dozen healthcare workers told Reuters how the stigma around coronavirus had complicated their work or, in some cases, increased risks. “The patients themselves requested this,” nurse Yunita Renyaana, told Reuters via Zoom."They would say, ‘Sister, not tomorrow, come tonight so nobody knows ... They were afraid of the stigma, of being seen as a disgrace, or a source of contagion."

On the islands of Java, Sulawesi and Bali, bereaved families have also barged into hospitals to claim bodies of COVID-19 victims, fearing their relatives might not be given a burial in line with religious beliefs.“The government is not doing enough to really educate the people,” said Sulfikar Amir, a disaster sociologist at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, “That’s one of the reasons we have seen extreme reactions.

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