Back to back disasters and Covid-19 records
Gold play button on the horizon, a series of disasters and one party rockin’ vaccine receiver
Here we were thinking that last week would be better than the week before. Just as we were making plans for the weekend, a powerful earthquake rocked West Sulawesi, then a flood, then a volcanic eruption, then a flood and a landslide. Meanwhile, we are reeling from the consequences of a holiday season, reflected in our COVID-19 numbers. Here’s what you need to know before you start your week:
Quake, Floods, Eruption
It has been a busy week for the Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).
Just as they struggled to retrieve debris, wreckage and human remains from the crash site of the Sriwijaya Air SJ182 and evacuate bodies from a devastating landslide in Sumedang, a 6.2 magnitude quake hit West Sulawesi in the early hours of Friday (15/1). As of Sunday afternoon, at least 73 fatalities have been confirmed in the city of Mamuju and the town of Majene.
On the same day, a devastating flood hit South Kalimantan as a result of extreme weather and deforestation in the upstream area. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said 15 people were killed. The capital, Banjarmasin, had its first flood in 40 years. A total of nine regencies were affected and more than 39,000 people had to evacuate.
The following day, heavy rain triggered a landslide in Manado, N. Sulawesi as well as a severe flood of up to three meters deep. Six people lost their lives and hundreds more were displaced.
Also on Saturday, East Java’s Mount Semeru erupted, sending pyroclastic flow which travelled 4.5km from its crater. No one was injured but the eruption was so powerful, nine districts were covered in volcanic ash. With rain expected to sweep the area and washing away all that volcanic ash and rocks, the biggest concerns right now are flashfloods and mudflows.
Meanwhile in Sumedang, rescuers continued to find more bodies underneath the rubbles. According to the Basarnas, as of Sunday morning, 32 bodies have been discovered and eight more may still be buried.
Sriwijaya Air’s FDR Found
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) were one step closer to figuring out what happened to the crashed Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182. On Thursday (14/1), officials retrieved the Flight Data Recorder from the sea bed allowing the KNKT to download 330 parameters like the plane’s pitch, roll, speed and so on.
The following day however, rescuers learned that the Cockpit Voice Recorder was ripped open and shattered from the crash. Rescuers were able to retrieve the CVR’s casing while the all important memory card is still missing. The problem is the casing is the one sending the underwater locator beacon so finding a memory card dislodged from its housing would make finding a needle in a haystack seem like a walk in the park.
The CVR, which together with the FDR make up what is known as a blackbox, contains conversations which took place inside the cockpit as well as other sounds like alarms and signals picked up by the mics.
As of 5pm on Saturday, a total of 24 victims had been identified. 62 were on board, including 7 children and 3 infants.
Vaccine Rollout
President Joko Widodo became the first person in Indonesia to be vaccinated on 13/1. He was inoculated using Sinovac’s Coronavac vaccine, just two days after the Food and Drug Agency (BPOM) issued its Emergency Use Authorization on 11/1.
Among the first to be vaccinated was celebrity, Raffi Ahmad. The government had hoped Raffi would bring confidence towards the vaccine, particularly among the 50 million people following him on Instagram. The vaccine has an efficacy rate of 65.3% in Indonesia and a 50.4% rate in Brazil, so it is no surprise many people are skeptical about Coronavac.
But the plan backfired when hours later Raffi appeared maskless to a big birthday party hosted by Ricardo Gelael, owner of the KFC franchise in the country. Former Jakarta governor, Ahok and singer, Once were also in attendance. But Raffi was the only guest who had the privilege of getting vaccinated first and many would kill to be in his shoes. So naturally, he became the target of people’s anger, including the palace who decided there shall be no more influencers getting priority. Raffi has since apologized.
Covid-19 Numbers
We are on our way to gold play button. Yes, 1 million total cases are on the horizon and by the looks of it, that could happen by the end of this month. We surpassed 800,000 on Jan 8 and on Sunday (17/1) our total confirmed cases hit the 900,000 mark. That’s nine days.
Over the last seven days, we seemed to have more and more new cases with four back-to-back records. The current new cases record is 14,224, set on Saturday (16/1).
The number of active cases is already nearing 150,000 and our healthcare system is struggling to keep up with deadly consequences, like this man from Depok who died on an online taxi after he went to 10 different hospitals.
Until Next Week
That’s it for this week’s edition. Hope you are staying safe and remain vigilant to potential disasters, man-made or natural. Mask up, wash your hands and stay away from crowds. Give us a follow on Twitter or subscribe to this Nuiceletter if you haven’t, share it to your friends if you love what we do, and send us feedback if you have any. Catch y’all in the next edition.