Indonesia Sees Record Number of Corovirus Cases for Third Straight Day

Jakarta. Indonesia recorded 12,818 coronavirus cases on Friday to set a new high for the third day in a row and take its total to 882,418, according to Health Ministry data.

It’s for the first time the country topped 12,000 cases in a single day.

The pace in newly coronavirus cases has been rising to a new level since late December. 

Southeast Asia’s biggest country has beaten its own record for the highest number of daily cases six times in the first half of January, after health officials warned that holiday traveling and gathering could result in a sudden spike.

There have been an additional 139,220 cases in the 15-day period, when daily numbers began to reach five digits. 

The total number of active cases stands at a staggering 138,238 or 15.7 percent of overall cases.

Indonesia kicked off a massive vaccination program earlier this week, targeting around 1.5 million medical workers in the first round of the campaign.

The government has announced a plan to vaccinate 181 million citizens, roughly 60 percent of the population, and estimated that it would take until the end of the year to accomplish the mission.

Recent figures also indicate that the country is in the path to the deadliest month yet of the outbreak, with 3,346 coronavirus-related deaths month to date.

The highest monthly death toll is 5,193 reported last month, according to the Jakarta Globe tally. Indonesia has been averaging 223 Covid deaths halfway through the month.

The total death toll stands at 25,484, an increase of 238 on the figure a day earlier.

Four of the ten worst-affected provinces broke their own record for the highest number of coronavirus cases in a day, including West Java where the daily count topped 3,000 for the first time.

West Java has recorded a total of 107,636 cases, second only to Jakarta.

The latter has more cases than those of West and Central Java combined. Jakarta has added 36,700 cases in the last 15 days, bringing its total number of cases to 220,434, including 3,673 deaths.

Central Java added 1,993 cases in the 24-hour period, its highest daily rise in 46 days, for a total of 99.052. At least 4,375 people have died from coronavirus in the province, the second-highest death toll among the country’s 34 provinces.

East Java reported a new high of 1,198 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 97,243. It remains the deadliest place in the Indonesian outbreak with a total of 6,779 Covid deaths, 63 more from yesterday.

The country’s four most populous provinces in Java are home to 59 percent of overall cases and 63 percent of the total death toll nationwide. 

South Sulawesi and East Kalimantan also broke their record for the highest daily count. In both provinces, a dramatic upturn in newly cases occurred in late November and have since reported spiraling daily numbers.

South Sulawesi has recorded 649 new cases in the past 24 hours to take its total to 39,703. It has added 8,656 cases in the first half of January, in comparison to a total of 10,390 cases the province recorded in the whole month of December.

East Kalimantan added 5,512 cases in the 15-day period, as opposed to its December total of 7,455. The province, which has been designated as the country’s future capital, has recorded a total of 32,588 cases and 852 deaths.

Coronavirus cases are rising in Banten and Yogyakarta, two smaller provinces in the most-crowded island of Java.

The average of daily numbers in the two provinces has exceeded 200 since Jan. 1. 

Banten is ranked ninth among worst-affected provinces with a total of 21,570 cases, but its daily numbers have been outpacing those of Riau and West Sumatra since early December.

Yogyakarta saw the steepest surge in newly cases that began since late November. Of the total of 16,354 cases in Yogyakarta, 63 percent have been recorded in the last one and a half months.