Budi Sutrisno, Jakarta – For the third day in a row, Indonesia has logged a record daily high number of coronavirus cases as the Health Ministry reported on Friday 4,823 new infections over the past 24 hours.
The country's daily virus count first topped 4,000 cases on Sept. 19, before continuously climbing to 4,465 cases on Wednesday and 4,634 cases on Thursday.
Indonesia's official COVID-19 tally nationwide reached 266,845 on Friday, including 196,196 recoveries and 10,218 deaths, making it the country with the second-highest number of recorded coronavirus cases in Southeast Asia – just below the Philippines – and the highest in fatalities among its ASEAN peers.
There are currently 60,431 active cases in the country.
The pandemic has reached 494 out of 514 municipalities and regencies in all 34 provinces across the archipelago.
Jakarta remains the worst-hit province in the country with 67,902 cases and 1,661 deaths, followed by East Java with 42,391 cases and 3,084 deaths.
Other hard-hit provinces include Central Java with 21,004 cases, West Java with 20,131 cases, South Sulawesi with 14,982 cases and South Kalimantan with 10,080.
Authorities have attributed the spike in virus transmission to the public's lack of compliance with health protocols, such as not maintaining safe physical distancing and going out without face masks.
The National COVID-19 task force has previously warned that the country's health system might soon collapse if the public continues to ignore coronavirus prevention protocols.
As of Friday, Indonesia had tested more than 1.86 million people and more than 3.12 million specimens. There are currently 112,082 suspected cases nationwide.