Jakarta. Confirmed cases of coronavirus in Indonesia have increased by 51,991 in the whole month of July, during which the virus has made a comeback in Jakarta as a breeding ground.

The country has recorded a total of 108,376 cases as of Friday, 2,040 more from yesterday, according to the National Covid-19 Task Force. It was only the third time that daily cases exceeded 2,000.

The total death toll in the outbreak stood at 5,131, after 73 more deaths in the last 24 hours.

Jakarta has returned as epicenter of the Indonesian outbreak by accumulating the most cases throughout July and outpacing worst-hit East Java.

July’s total in the capital city was 9,975 cases, slightly above East Java’s 9,953.

Overall, East Java remains the most-affected province with a total of 22,089 cases, including 1,698 deaths.

It surpassed Jakarta as the province with the most cases on June 26 following weeks of uncontrolled transmission of the virus. The outbreak continued to rage on in East Java in July, but on the other hand the transmission rate in Jakarta started to regain pace with new sources of infections including business and government premises and returning Indonesian migrant workers.

The capital city has been averaging 322 cases per day since July 1, more than double the daily average in June, which stood at 136 cases.

Jakarta has registered a total of 21,399 cases as of Friday, including 831 deaths.

While South Sulawesi and South Kalimantan were still struggling to contain the spread of the virus that had hit them badly since the beginning of the outbreak, Central Java and North Sumatra emerged as new hotspots.

The four provinces have reported three-digit daily figures in the most part of July and added pace to the growth of new cases countrywide. 

All these factors have led Indonesia to go through the toughest month yet of the global pandemic.

Last month, the country accumulated close to 30,000 cases.

The number of daily recoveries has been encouraging. In total, 65,907 Covid-19 patients have been cured or discharged from hospitals, accounting for 50.8 percent of the total cases.

Over the last two weeks, daily number of recovered patients has reached 1,300 or more. At least five highest single-day rises of recovery have occurred in the period.