VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Mar. 2 - Social Affairs Minister Tri Rismaharini has said that her ministry is no longer compensating families of COVID-19 victims due to funds shortage and difficulties in determining cause of death and calculating the payout.    

The compensation funds were no longer available when she took over as the social affairs minister on December 23, 2020, she added.

"Actually, how much is the need for COVID-19 victims? It's inconceivable. It turns out that the amount is huge and there is no more money,” Rismaharini remarked here on Tuesday.

For 2021, the ministry has only allocated a budget of Rp35 billion for compensating natural disaster victims, with Rp15 million earmarked for each victim.

Earlier, the ministry's director of social protection for social disaster victims, Sunarti, had said there has been no budget allocation this year for compensating the families of people dying of COVID-19.

Last year, the ministry had provided Rp15 million as compensation to heirs of each COVID-19 victim.

As of March 3, 2021, or in the year since the first infections emerged in the country, Indonesia has recorded a total of 1,341,314 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 1,151,915 recoveries, and 36,325 deaths.

The country’s single-day COVID-19 case count increased by 6,680 on Tuesday. (Antaranews)