Indonesia Reports 316 New Cases as Jokowi Declares Covid-19 a National Disaster

Jakarta. Indonesia reported 316 new Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours, after a record daily increase of 330 cases on Sunday, to bring the country's overall number of cases to 4,557.

There were 26 more deaths to bring the accumulative death toll to 399, and 21 patients recovered to increase the total number of recoveries to 380.

Covid-19 Task Force spokesman Achmad Yurianto said the new Covid-19 cases were confirmed through PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) testing.

In his daily teleconference, Achmad stressed the importance of staying at home, wearing face masks, observing physical distance and frequently washing hands with running water for at least 20 seconds to break the coronavirus' transmission chain. 

"Everyone must have the discipline to wear a face mask, especially in public," Achmad said.

National Disaster

On Monday, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo signed a presidential decree declaring Covid-19 a national disaster as the death toll from the pandemic continues to increase and socio-economic losses stack up in the country. 

The decree also reaffirms that regional government heads must follow the policies of the central government in handling the pandemic. 

During a shortened cabinet meeting at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Monday afternoon, Jokowi instructed Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto to increase the number of Covid-19 swab tests to 10,000 per day.

Currently, Indonesia has one of the lowest numbers of Covid-19 testing in the world.

Jokowi also asked all ministries and government institutions to share data and information on Covid-19 with the Task Force and regional governments.

He requested that all data related to Covid-19 must be released to the public and made accessible to everyone.

"Everything has to be made clear and entered into a database. [Test] results must be shared, everyone should be able to access the data we have [on the pandemic], including information on suspect patients [PDP], people under surveillance [ODP], confirmed cases, recoveries, fatalities and how many people had been tested," the president said.