Favourable weather conditions point to a less severe forest fire season in Indonesia this year, but the burning could still compound what is now the worst coronavirus situation of any country, experts say.

However, as the country is battling a second wave of coronavirus infections and entering the dry season at the same time, Indonesia couldn’t afford to rest on its laurels, experts warn.

The risk of forest fires and their resulting haze, which typically sicken hundreds of thousands of people every year, is especially worrying this time around as Indonesia reels from a devastating second wave of Covid-19 that has made the country the global epicenter of the pandemic. Daily infection rates and deaths continue to rise, leaving hospitals overwhelmed and oxygen and medicine scarce.

Experts say the onset of the fire season, and the smoke generated, will stretch the country’s medical facilities beyond their limits and send the nation into a catastrophic health crisis. Agus Dwi Susanto, who chairs the Indonesian Society of Pulmonologists (PDPI), said smog from forest fires could exacerbate respiratory complaints from the Covid-19 outbreak.

“Research has shown that exposure to air pollution, including [from] land and forest fires, could exacerbate the symptoms of Covid-19,” he said.

The double blow of a smog-related infection and Covid-19 would compound the symptoms in affected people, requiring greater rates of hospitalisation in a system that the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) says has already “functionally collapsed.”

“If we don’t want to get the impact of an increase in Covid-19 cases caused by air pollution, then let’s prevent [fires] together and don’t let [fires] become a facilitator of Covid-19,” said Bambang Hero Saharjo, a forest fire expert from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB).

Read the full article about fires seasons during COVID-19 by Hans Nicholas Jong at Eco-Business.