Heru Andriyanto & Carlos Roy Fajarta, Jakarta – Indonesia reported a dramatic surge in confirmed cases of coronavirus on Thursday, with 3,622 new infections to take the country's total to 184,268. Today's number broke the previous record of 3,308 cases only five days ago.

The daily death toll reached the second-highest number with 134 more Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 7,750. The record number of Covid-19 deaths in a single day was 139, occurring on July 22.

Jakarta again became the main driver of the national tally. The capital reported a new high in daily total with 1,359 cases, the fourth time in the outbreak it saw a four-digit figure.

Jakarta has registered a total of 43,400 cases as of Thursday, including 1,246 deaths. It has around 10,000 cases more than East Java, the second worst-affected province.

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan admitted on Thursday the rate of transmission in the capital is alarming.

"The condition in Jakarta is alarming and the death toll continues to grow. People tend to remove their masks while staying with family members or gathering with office mates, creating new clusters of infection at households and offices," the governor said during an event to promote the wearing of face masks in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.

"We want to raise awareness among the people that the risk of catching the virus is higher without the face masks. Many people have ignored the advice to wear masks, maintain physical distancing and wash their hands," he said.

The spread of the virus has gained pace in Jakarta since last month when the city averaged 603 cases per day in comparison to an average of 323 cases in July.

Meanwhile, East Java added 377 cases for a total of 34,655 cases. It reported 34 deaths, the highest daily death toll of the day, to take its total number of Covid-19 deaths to 2,459.

Central Java reported 242 new cases to take the province's total to 14,670, with 18 more deaths for a total of 1,061.

West Java registered 238 new cases, bringing its total number of confirmed cases to 11,719. It's closing in on South Sulawesi, who reported just 50 new cases for a total of 12,244.

Outside the top five provinces, Bali saw a new high in the number of daily cases with 174 to take its total to 5,710.

East Kalimantan added 157 new cases and now has a total of 4,534 cases. It reported the second-highest daily death toll after East Java, with 27 more deaths to take its total death toll to 192.

Bali and East Kalimantan have emerged as new hotspots since mid-August.

North Sumatra, South Kalimantan and Riau also reported three-digit rises on Thursday.

With a total of 8,527 cases, South Kalimantan ranks sixth among provinces with the most cases, followed by North Sumatra (7,265).

Riau has around 2,100 cases to rank low in the second third of the country's 34 provinces but new cases have exceeded 100 for two consecutive days.

Nationwide, the total number of cured or discharged Covid-19 patients stood at 132,055 or 71.7 percent of the total cases. The number of active cases grew to 44,463 dispersed in 34 provinces.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/indonesia-sets-new-record-in-daily-coronavirus-cases