‘We owe it to God’: as Indonesia prays, how is it keeping the coronavirus at bay?

Indonesia’s health minister attributes the country’s lack of coronavirus cases to prayer – despite a study showing it should have had cases by now

But concerns have been raised, especially after the response to the bird flu virus a decade ago, which required World Health Organisation intervention

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Indonesian Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto has attributed the country’s lack of coronavirus cases to prayer. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:00am, 18 Feb 2020Updated: 1:03pm, 2 Mar 2020

Several weeks into the new coronavirus outbreak, Indonesia continues to remain completely free of the disease, despite its neighbours reporting numerous confirmed cases.

The country’s top health official is under increasing pressure to explain why no cases have been reported, especially in light of a recent Harvard University study that used mathematical probabilities including travel destinations to conclude that Indonesia should have had confirmed infections by now.

“We owe it to God,” said Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto, a military doctor and radiologist whose expertise does not include pandemic viruses. “It’s because of our prayers. We do not wish upon something like that will reach Indonesia.”

An Indonesian student who was quarantined in Natuna after leaving the coronavirus-stricken city of Wuhan, hugs a friend after being released. Photo: EPA-EFE

Indonesia has stepped up medical monitoring and cancelled commercial flights to and from mainland China, but the religious explanation is raising eyebrows among health professionals, especially after the country’s response to previous epidemics such as Sars, Ebola or bird flu.

During the outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus more than a decade ago, nearly 200 people died at an 84 per cent death rate, prompting intervention by the World Health Organisation.