Heru Andriyanto, Jakarta – The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Indonesia surpassed the 150,000 mark on Saturday as new cases have been surging by at least 2,000 for three consecutive days.

Indonesia was the 23rd country in the world to have reached the sad milestone.

It reported 2,090 new cases in the day to take its total to 151,498, including 6,594 deaths, according to the Health Ministry. The daily death toll reached a new high in a month, with 94 more Covid-19 deaths.

Since August 1, the country has added more than 43,100 cases, averaging 1,960 cases per day.

The country hit the 50,000 mark on June 25, nearly four months after the first cases were confirmed on March 2. Within a month and two days, its total number of cases passed 100,000 on July 27. It took only 26 days for the country to add another 50,000 cases.

The number of Covid-19 patients recovering from the disease jumped by 2,207 for a total of 105,198, or 69.4 percent of the total cases. It's for the fourth day in a row that recoveries exceeded 2,000.

Jakarta and East Java remain the main drivers of the surge in daily cases. The capital city reported 588 new cases for a total of 32,855, including 1,080 deaths.

The number of confirmed cases of the virus in East Java surpassed 30,000 on Saturday, after it added 321 more cases. The province also reported the highest daily death toll with 25 more deaths in the last 24 hours, taking its total number of fatalities to 2,153.

West Java saw 134 new cases in another indication that it begins to outpace South Sulawesi and Central Java in the growth of new cases, although it remains in the fifth place of the most-affected provinces with a total of 9,215 cases.

East Kalimantan is potentially becoming a new hotspot with another three-digit daily rise. It recorded 129 new cases and its total has now topped 3,000.

Cases in Central Java rose by 100 for a total of 12,288 cases. It has the third highest death toll of 834, 16 more from yesterday.

South Sulawesi, the fourth worst-affected province, added 61 cases to take its total to 11,437.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/indonesia-covid19-cases-pass-15000