Heru Andriyanto, Jakarta – Indonesia added 1,821 new confirmed cases of coronavirus on Monday to bring its total to 141,370, with several provinces not considered as hotspots seeing a three-digit figure.

Aceh, which last month was still among the group of the least-affected provinces, recorded 168 cases, the first time it saw a three-digit rise in a day and topped 1,000 cases overall. Its previous high was 98 cases on July 31.

East Kalimantan added 116 cases for a total of 2,485 cases. It reported 23 Covid-19 deaths yesterday, among the highest daily death toll nationally, but the provincial government later clarified that the single-day figure was actually accumulated from previously unreported deaths dating back from July.

Surging cases in both provinces eclipsed a dramatic drop in cases in hotspots like Central Java, West Java and South Sulawesi.

East Java reported just 36 new cases, the lowest daily increase since early June, while West Java added 45 cases and South Sulawesi registered only 17 new cases.

Positivity rate

Jakarta, the epicenter of the Indonesian outbreak, added 552 new cases for a total of 29,952, including 995 deaths, further indicating that the capital city is nowhere near its peak.

It has accumulated more than 8,500 cases since the start of the month, or an average of 503 cases per day.

Governor Anies Baswedan said on Monday 8.9 percent of results from the mass Covid-19 testing in the capital have come back positive in the past week.

"The safe level of a positivity rate is 5 percent of lower. It's considered disastrous when the positivity rate hits 10 percent or higher," Anies said.

Jakarta's current diagnostic testing capacity is put at more than 40,000 people a week.

East Java reported 336 new cases for a total of 28,239 cases. It has the highest death toll of 2,037, an increase by 14 from a day earlier.

Both Central Java and South Sulawesi have accumulated more than 11,000 cases since the outbreak. West Java, with aorund 7,600 cases, joined the top five of worst-hit provinces.

Roughly a third of the country's 34 provinces have fewer than 1,000 cases.

The number of cured Covid-19 patients increased by 1,355 natiowide for a total of 94,458 or 66.8 percent of the total cases.

According to the National Covid-19 Task Force, 4.4 percent of confirmed Covid-19 cases have ended with deaths.

The number of active cases countrywide stood at 40,705 as of Monday.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/aceh-east-kalimantan-see-sudden-surge-in-coronavirus-cases