By NewsDesk  @infectiousdiseasenews

Case counts, Healthcare

The Indonesia Ministry of Health, or Kementerian Kesehatan is now reporting 102,051 total COVID-19 cases and 4901 deaths through Tuesday.

The Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) estimated that six out of every 100 deaths were medical workers, but in a country where COVID-19 has become heavily stigmatized and data is often inaccurate or not publically available, that figure might only be a small fraction of the total problem.

Indonesia needs more ventilators for its COVID-19 response. The U.S. Government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has donated 100 brand-new, state-of-the-art ventilators to Indonesia to assist its fight against COVID-19.

COVID-19 vaccine

Voice of America (VOA) reports that a phase 3 clinical trial for a COVID-19 vaccine will soon start Bandung, West Java, Indonesia.

The report notes: About 2,400 samples of an experimental vaccine have been shipped from China to Bandung for the trial, which will begin August 3. The vaccine, developed by the Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech, is one of only five out of 166 candidates to have reached such an advanced stage of testing.

Phase 3 testing involves giving a vaccine to thousands of volunteers to see how many become infected, compared with others who are given a placebo.