Alya Nurbaiti, Jakarta – Adults aged 30 to 59 make up the largest proportion of COVID-19 deaths in Indonesia, the Health Ministry announced on Tuesday.
The ministry's disease control and prevention director general, Achmad Yurianto, said in a press conference that eight more people had died of the disease on Tuesday, bringing the total official death toll to 773.
Of the 773 deaths, five were under the age of 15: two aged 0 to 4 years old and three aged 5 to 14 years old. Meanwhile, 19 of the people who died were aged 15 to 29 years old, 351 were 30 to 59 years old, 302 were 60 to 79 years old and 27 people were aged 80 or more.
"The ages of the other 69 cases are still being verified," Yurianto said.
Indonesia's death toll continues to be the highest in Southeast Asia, followed by the Philippines with 530 deaths and Malaysia with 100 deaths. The country's COVID-19 mortality rate of around 8.13 percent is also among the highest in the world.
Concerns have been raised that Indonesia's limited testing capacity has led to an underreported death toll. According to the Jakarta provincial administration, 1,666 people have been buried using COVID-19 protocols in the capital alone. Those include suspected patients who died before being tested for COVID-19 or before their test results came back, Governor Anies Baswedan said.
According to the official government count, Indonesia has recorded a total of 9,511 confirmed COVID-19 cases across 297 cities and regencies in all 34 provinces as of Tuesday.