Heru Andriyanto, Dina Manafe, Jakarta – Indonesia has added 60,050 coronavirus cases since the beginning of the month with the country's four most populous provinces accounting for 60 percent of the figure amid an upturn in newly cases.

The month-to-date count brings the total number of confirmed cases to 598,933, including 18,336 deaths as of Thursday, according to the Health Ministry data.

The total number of active cases sets another high of 88,622, nearly 15 percent of the overall cases.

A further 165 patients have died in the last 24 hours, extending a run of three-digit daily death toll to 19 days – the deadliest period of the Indonesian outbreak. During the span, the record high of daily death toll were beaten twice.

Jakarta and East Java both reported a new high in their seven-day average, while Central and West Java added nearly 1,000 cases each in the 24-hour period.

Jakarta has been averaging 1,254 cases in the past week to take its total to 149,018, more than any other provinces. At least 2,882 people have died from Covid-19 in the capital city.

East Java is at a distant second with a total of 67,613 cases after reporting a new high of 796 cases. The province has set new record of daily rise for two days in a row.

It also has beaten its own record of seven-day average for 12 consecutive days now. East Java reported the highest daily death toll of 35 to bring the total provincial death toll to 4,740, the highest countrywide.

Central Java added 998 new cases for a total of 63,610, including 2,544 deaths.

West Java registered 960 more cases to take its total to 63,043. It becomes the fourth province to have passed more than 1,000 coronavirus-related deaths since the outbreak, after recording an additional 32 fatalities in the past 24 hours.

Central and West Java have seen a dramatic surge in newly cases since mid-November in line with their increasing diagnostic testing capacity.

Combined cases from the four provinces on the most crowded island of Java account for 57 percent of the national tally.

Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto said earlier in the day the first stage of vaccination against coronavirus will focus on six provinces in Java and the resort island of Bali.

"Our main consideration is that Java and Bali have the biggest population and the highest number of confirmed cases," the minister said in a hearing with the House of Representatives' Health Commission.

Indonesia has received 1.2 million doses of China's Sinovac vaccine and will get another 1.8 million later this month.

The first batch of vaccination will target medical workers in the frontline of Covid response and people of "high-risk" category, he said.

The current data suggest that five provinces have more cases than Bali, such as South Sulawesi, Riau, East Kalimantan, West Sumatra and North Sumatra.

Newly cases in South Sulawesi are trending up while the surge is slowing in Riau and West Sumatra. However, the weekly average in the two Sumatra neighbors remains much higher than it was three months ago.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/indonesia-adds-60000-coronavirus-cases-in-last-10-day