Anti-Maskers Are Being Made to Dig Graves for Coronavirus Victims in Indonesia - DMT NEWS

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Anti-Maskers Are Being Made to Dig Graves for Coronavirus Victims in Indonesia

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At least eight people in Gresik, East Java who refused to wear face masks have been forced to dig graves for victims of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the Jakarta Post, the punishment for not wearing a face covering, mandated by Indonesian law, is to work in one of the area's public graveyards, as a deterrent against repeated violations.  

“There are only three available gravediggers at the moment, so I thought I might as well put these people to work with them,” local politician and Cerme District head Suyono told Tribun News. He added: “Hopefully this can create a deterrent effect against violations."

Convicted anti-maskers are only performing the manual labour of digging graves and preparing the area to support caskets. The handling of the bodies of coronavirus victims is still done by public health officials wearing full-body protective gear. 


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Indonesia made mask-wearing in public mandatory in early April. Officials then made it law in July, after it was discovered that as many as 70 percent of people in the East Java province – the worst affected area of the country – were not wearing face coverings. 

This comes after another district in Indonesia reportedly locked up quarantine violators in a “haunted house”. The regional government of Sragen in Central Java adopted the unusual strategy to spook people into staying indoors.

Mayor of Sragen, Kusdinar Sukowati, asked all the subdistricts under her jurisdiction to designate abandoned homes and equip them with beds to hold quarantine breakers, specifically asking for the creepiest, most haunted-looking houses available. Anyone who defied the president’s order by breaking quarantine rules was sent to one of these homes.

The latest figures show Indonesia has over 221,000 cases of COVID-19, with a total of 8,841 so far in 2020, which is the highest death toll in Southeast Asia. Indonesia reported 3,141 new coronavirus cases on Monday, with an additional 118 new deaths. 





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Jack Cummings, Khareem Sudlow