A state of emergency over land and forest fires was declared in Central Kalimantan province of Indonesia on June 30, following the finding of over 700 hotspots and wildfires in some local areas.
The total damage and economic losses from forest fires in Indonesia this year has amounted to at least 5.2 billion USD, equal to 0.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, the World Bank said in a report on December 11.
Health experts are advising people to take precautions to prevent epidemics and diseases that frequently occur in the first three months of the year during the humid weather and crowded festivals, said Tran Dac Phu, head of the Ministry of Health’s Department of Preventive Medicine.
Dense haze from Indonesia spurred by forest fires has resulted in the worst pollution in southern Thailand in over a decade, said Thai authorities on October 22.
More than 300,000 Indonesians were reportedly suffering from respiratory illnesses due to the worsening haze conditions in the dry season, Indonesia’s Ministry of Health announced on October 6.
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