Alya Nurbaiti, Jakarta – Indonesia has recorded its biggest surge of COVID-19 cases with 1,331 new confirmed cases on Thursday, a day after the country officially surpassed Singapore with the highest number of infections in the Southeast Asia region.
The figure was the largest increase in cases within 24 hours since President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo announced the first cases in the country on March 2.
The spike brought the total number of infections to 42,762 cases with 63 fatalities, the second-highest recorded death toll in a day following 64 deaths on Monday, the Health Ministry announced on Thursday, adding that 16,789 people have recovered from the highly infectious respiratory disease.
The country also managed to hit more than 20,000 swab tests per day on Thursday.
"Today we tested a total of 20,650 specimens," Health Ministry Disease Control and Prevention Director Gen. Achmad Yurianto said during the daily press briefing on Thursday.
East Java, the new epicenter of the outbreak in Indonesia, reported most cases with 384 new daily cases, followed by capital city Jakarta with 173 cases, South Sulawesi 166 cases, South Kalimantan 118 cases and Bali 66 cases.
Cases have been reported in 435 regencies and municipalities spread over all 34 provinces.