Jakarta. Indonesia reported yet another highest single-day rise of coronavirus infections on Thursday, with 2,657 new cases to take the country’s total to 70,736, according to the National Covid-19 Task Force.

The country has never reported more than 2,000 cases in a day before.

It was also the second day in a row the country saw a record number of cases. The previous high was 1,853 cases yesterday, 43 percent fewer than Thursday’s high.

The new high was mainly attributable to a sudden surge in cases in West Java, which reported 962 new cases.  It now has a total of 4,843 cases, in the fifth place among the most affected provinces.

The previous highest single-day rise in a province was 552, recorded by East Java on Sunday.

The alarming rate of infections in West Java suggests that the Indonesian outbreak is nowhere near its peak. The country’s biggest province has a population of nearly 50 million and it has never registered more than 300 cases a day before.

Worst-hit province East Java meanwhile reported 517 more cases, its second-highest daily rise, to take the province’s total to 15,484, more than any other provinces.

It also has the most Covid-19 deaths, with 23 fatalities on Thursday to bring its total death toll to 1,125. 

Jakarta remains unable to slow down the virus, with 284 new cases to a total of 13,488. The Covid-19 death toll in the capital city stood at 671, six more from yesterday.

South Sulawesi, the third most-affected province, registered 130 new cases to take its total to 6,488.

Central Java continued the three-digit run with 120 new cases to a total of 5,203.

The nationwide death toll was put at 3,417, an increase of 58 in the 24-hour period. The mortality rate is down slightly to 4.8 percent, roughly the same level of the global rate.

The number of cured or discharged Covid-19 patients increased by 1,066 to a total of 32,651 or 46.1 percent of overall cases. 

There are currently 34,668 active cases in the archipelago, or 49 percent of total confirmed cases.

Indonesia now ranks 26th in the global statistics of coronavirus cases and is narrowing the gap from China, where the pandemic originated. China has 84,950 cases and ranks 24th globally, according to data from US-based Johns Hopkins University.