17 Aug 2020

Papua official not linking child infections to schools

3:30 pm on 17 August 2020

Almost 300 children below 19 years-old have been infected with Covid-19 in Indonesia's Papua province.

Papua's Education, Archive and Library Agency head, Christian Sohilait

Papua's Education, Archive and Library Agency head, Christian Sohilait Photo: Edukasi Papua

The Jakarta Post reported that the data from the Papua Covid-19 prevention task force is a cumulative number from late March to last week.

However Papua's Education, Archive and Library Agency head, Christian Sohilait, said not every infected child was a student.

He said the 289 confirmed coronavirus transmissions were not from school activities following the recent reopening of schools.

According to Indonesia's Health Ministry, the total confirmed cases of the coronavirus to date in Papua had reached 3,422 - almost two-thirds of whom had recovered.

There have been 36 deaths.

Of the total confirmed cases, 86 percent were reported as being people aged 19 to 58.

In neighbouring West Papua province, there had been 605 confirmed cases to date, with 450 recoveries and seven deaths.

Data on how many of these cases were children was not available.