BAD TO WORSE

100 Children Under 5 Are Dying From COVID Every Week in Indonesia

No other country has seen such a high child mortality rate since the pandemic began last year.

For the past month, more than 100 children under the age of 5 have been dying from COVID-19 in Indonesia, putting to rest the myth that children are rarely affected by the virus. Health officials say the sharp uptick in child mortality—the highest seen in any country since the pandemic began—is driven by the Delta variant of the virus. Indonesia is the latest country to buckle under the weight of a new wave of the pandemic, marking 50,000 new infections and 1,566 deaths in a single day on Friday. Children in Indonesia now make up 12.5 percent of all infections and are not eligible for vaccinations in the country, where just 6 percent of the adult population has been fully inoculated.