anchor: isil has claimed responsibility for a bomb that went off in iraq. tuesday is the first official day of a holiday so people were out shopping. reporter: this is where the explosion happened, the attack that killed and injured dozens of innocent civilians. right behind me, not far from where i'm standing, the

exclusion happened hours ago. security forces say it is an exclusive -- explosive device. investigations are underway. the government has ordered arrests against the police commander was leading a security unit but showing the area. anchor: these are pictures from a short time ago where people gathered for the announcement. the result is being delayed by agitations of fraud. the second phase of filling a dam is complete. egypt and saddam wants a binding deal. ethiopia says the project is

essential to its development. cairo fears a could restrict water access. afghanistan is withdrawing diplomatic staff after the brief abduction of the ambassadors daughter. a row between the neighbors has taken a turn for the worse as the afghan government -- but comes ahead of pakistan hosting talks next week, following withdrawal of foreign troops from afghanistan. anchor: another update after the latest installment of inside story.

anchor: indonesia becomes covid-19 asia epicenter. hospitals are overstretched, cemeteries are full, even vaccinated doctors are died. how did the outbreak spiral out of control? this is inside story. welcome to the program. covid-19 is sweeping across indonesia at alarming speed. that has overtaken india as a pandemic hotspot. 1300 deaths on monday. although that is down from saturday. this chart from the university

of oxford shows numbers going up dramatically over the past month. researchers believe the real figure could be higher. communities are relying on volunteers to rely -- hospitals are turning away patients because they don't have better oxygen. some are coming people to bring their own oxygen supplies. >> i came from the hospital. anchor: only 6% of the house was -- population is vaccinated. they are relying on china's vaccine. 114 doctors have died this month

despite 95% being inoculated. the u.s. is donating nano vaccines, some of which will be used as booster shots. the government has banned non-essential travel to try and curb new infections. that's bring our guests. from brisbane, australia, a phd candidate. and also from jakarta, a public policy analyst. a warm welcome to you all and thank you so much for joining us. let me start with you, many believe the government's data does not reveal the extent of the covid-19 crisis. what do you say to that? >> we are reporting and

collected at the grassroots level that shows many that's are not being counted as covid-19 deaths. this is a real problem. we also try to look at the official data at the city level and provincial level and central level and unfortunately. there is a big discrepancy between death and data. the city level and central level, this this transparency remains a challenge.

we know data is one of the key important elements to tackle the pandemic. having data without having data that is accountable, reflecting the situation, i don't think the decision-makers can make an evidence-based public health decision in order to control the pandemic. anchor: we are seeing these heartbreaking scenes play out in different parts of indonesia, where you have people being turned away from hospitals, hospitals not having enough beds, not having enough oxygen. oxygen shortages. just how stressed are the hospitals right now, and from your vantage point, is the medical system close to collapse? >> i think it is already collapsing.

they have to add more rooms to the hospitals. any hospitals cannot accept non-covid patients because they are increasing capacity for covid patients. for treatment. not only that, we are beginning to see that many more people died while they are doing their own isolation in homes. many of the community health systems whose job was to monitor them and bring them to the hospital, because they could not bring them to the hospital. many also died in the ambulance on the way there.

there were people waiting for emergency rooms. there were 1500 people who were waiting to enter the emergency room. you can imagine. [indiscernible] anchor: where do things stand currently when it comes to testing? are there enough tests that are being done to get an accurate count of the number of cases? >> unfortunately since the beginning of the pandemic, there is low rates of testing and testing capacity.

we can see the test positivity rates since the beginning of the pandemic, up to now, it is always about 10%. regarding community transmission, it seemed the country could identify not only infection -- it put the country in a situation where the government flicker is not reflecting the real condition in the community. the reason is had to find it.

if you cannot find infection, how come we can cut the transmission. we face a very serious threat. we are not only dealing but we have to combined with extreme [indiscernible] but for indonesia, extreme testing. more than one million at least two find the infection among the community. anchor: your organization has been involved in collecting data across multiple sectors of society. let me ask you, what are the numbers like when it comes to

people who have died from covid-19 in self-isolation. anchor: we collect data based on social media and mass media reports, and also our local networks. we try to get triangulation's to make sure we don't have double data. since june until now, we recorded that there were at least 712 people who died during the self-isolation's at their home. so many families, so many people, so many passions have been turned from hospitals and resolving they have to go around

finding medical help. at least let them be at home without any help. i wanted to emphasize that the number of health care workers in indonesia who died from covid-19 is very big. we have reported 1440 health workers across indonesia who have died of covid-19 in this month alone in july we are not yet at the end of july, so this month only, there were 224 health care workers who do not think. -- died from covid-19. this is disappointing and sad. anchor: sorry to interrupt.

when it comes to that point, i have seen the reports there have been doses of moderna sent by the u.s. in indonesia, and the plans are a boost for the health care workers. why have health care workers been so vulnerable? >> i think the doctor would be the better person to answer the question. but let me jump in. i think because transmissions of the virus, it is way too big for us. this makes so many patients come to the hospital. many hospitals are full. when the hospitals are full with covid patients, you can imagine the transmission of the virus

inside the hospital. then the number of health workers, the risk of infections of the virus, they are helping in the hospital. they have a risk of infection. we have to note the presence of delta variant. anchor: will more be done to protect health care workers in indonesia? why is the situation so bad? >> almost 90% of our health care workers got the sinovac vaccine six months ago.

i cannot say if they analyzed, since the vaccine is decreasing effectiveness in protecting health care workers. it is an important point. this analysis is related to the funding on research not published at. it seems the sinovac vaccine is less effective against the new variant, especially delta. that is why epidemiologists in indonesia advised the government that health care workers need more protection. we need this booster. that is correct. they are very vulnerable. the number is increasing.

during the situation, there will be a point of weakness. of course, the who, they are developing the definition. that is what we can see from the situation, in indonesia, it is easy. even from households. one room in the hospital, almost

100%. you can see the number of breakthrough infections is increasing. that is why the protection is very important, strengthening protection. anchor: why have vaccination rates been so low in indonesia? officials have indicated they want to vaccinate around three quarters of the population by early next year. based on what you have seen, is that possible? >> i think i have to disagree. [indiscernible] comparing the vaccination rate in indonesia is quite hot.

we have more than 41 million vaccinations, 60 million on second shot. the problem is we are not using the most effective accident. we are using sinovac. latest studies have confirmed it is not effective against the delta variant. we need to quickly vaccinate the health workers. about two days ago, they started giving the moderna shot at the university of indonesia. i think we are on average vaccinating about a million people. in term of vaccination, i think indonesia is among the fastest, we have a very big population.

we need to get the most effective vaccine. getting pfizer and moderna. now we are planning to have boosters for those at risk. i think the current minister of health is quite good. you have to clean up the mess left by the previous minister. anchor: how much is a problem of the spread of misinformation in indonesia? >> that is part of a major obstacle. we have two different misinformation, and

disinformation. we received so much misinformation in the beginning. but there is no specific and strong from the government to address the misinformation. it has been around since the pandemic. secondly, unfortunately, when there is no action to address this misinformation, i could see the situation is getting worse. some of the government, they mentioned a nonscientific jokes that they do that. that makes the public in the confusion. for example, we are a strong community because we are religious but covid-19 will not

get to us because of it and then we have so many local traditionalists that would make a stronger. all of them were not based, there is a lack of a scientific race of the situations. instead, the government should implement communications, a way of delivering a statement to the public. that way the public would be more alert to the real situations. this also includes the problem of transparency. when the data is transparent and accountable, when the government published a community to promote the situations. that would make the public more educated and it would raise the

public awareness this alertness with let the public follow the health protocols that the government asked the public. i want to make a comment on the vaccinations. we had a couple of times of vaccine hesitancy but it is limited in the capital city. the findings are we found that people are still, those who are still hesitant, very small numbers but it's still matter. the populations are hesitant to get a vaccine because of issues and efficacy's.

they have to address it this way. they have to make sure the benefits outweigh the risk. i would say we need promotion. the government always mentions herd immunity. it has been going around since the first time we had vaccines. indonesia is one of the fastest countries that rolled out the vaccine. in terms of numbers, yes. how does this number -- is it effective enough to getting the most vulnerable people and

groups that is determinate in order to make sure most populations will get immunity. we want to build immunity population. you need to make sure. anchor: we are starting to run out of time. i want to ask another question. there have been concerns that gatherings over the holidays might accelerate the number of infections. authorities have tried two people from returning to hometowns. was enough done at that time? now there is concern that people may try and travel or gather. i want to ask how concerning is that at a time where cases are surging as much as they are.

there were several implications. >> we are approaching the curve. at the same time, we are now facing the delta variant which we know is very effective among people even who are fully vaccinated. both of them can be infected. during this time, if we don't do enough. [indiscernible] we will face another surge. it will accelerate the number of people. also people are dying.

most vulnerable ones are exposed to the virus. capacity [indiscernible] without knowing --if we now move, the most vulnerable will be easy to get infected. we already see the number of cases increasing. the problem will be spread more. i do hope that the government [indiscernible]

the other side is the hospitals are overwhelmed. this is a situation. anchor: we have run out of time, we're going to have to leave the conversation. thank you to our guests. thank you for watching. you can see this in all of this again anytime by visiting our website. go to our facebook page. you could also join the conversation on twitter. bye for now.

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