Heru Andriyanto, Jakarta – The number of coronavirus-related deaths in Indonesia has been rising steadily in the last three weeks, during which 100 or more people died of the virus every day.

The previous longest run of three-digit daily deaths was 12 days.

There have been 18,819 deaths since the outbreak began with 166 new deaths on Sunday. The seven-day average reaches a new high of 154, the third day in a row that weekly death toll has set a new record.

Of the Sunday's death toll, 95 have come from East and Central Java.

East Java is also leading the overall coronavirus-related deaths with a total of 4,879. Jakarta was second with 2,933 deaths, followed by Central Java (2,635) and West Java (1,057).

Confirmed cases

The four most populous provinces also have a lion's share of the overall number of coronavirus cases.

Indonesia has recorded a total 617,820 cases as of Sunday, an increase of 6,189 on the previous day figure, according to the Health Ministry data.

Nearly 79,000 new cases have been added nationwide since the beginning of the month.

It extends the record in the total number of active cases to 93,165 or 15.1 percent of the overall cases.

After the first peak in late September, the surge started again in early November with a much bigger pace, spurred by resurgence in major hotspots.

Jakarta, for example, began to regularly report four-digit daily numbers in early November after a downward trend in the previous month.

The capital has recorded 1,298 cases in the past 24 hours to take its total to 152,499, more than any other provinces.

East Java has beaten its own record in seven-day average for more than two weeks now to reach a total of 69,921. The province reported an upturn on Nov. 18 and has since seen newly cases rise steadily.

The curve is highly fluctuating in Central Java but new infections are currently trending up, with an average of 858 cases in the past week.

It has a total of 66,517 cases to rank third among worst-affected provinces.

West Java is the only province after Jakarta to average more than 1,000 cases month to date. The province of 50 million people has recorded a total of 66,210 cases.

Combined cases from the four provinces alone account for 57.5 percent of the national tally.

While other hotspots like Riau, West Sumatra, North Sumatra and Bali see infections fall, newly cases remain high in East Kalimantan and South Sulawesi.

Furthermore, Banten and Central Kalimantan have emerged as new hotspots with three-digit daily numbers.

South Sulawesi has added the pace in new infections since late last month, when cases began to rise by more than 100 every day.

Its seven-day average has set a new high for the last four days. South Sulawesi has a total of 23,199 cases, the highest outside of the four worst-hit provinces in Java.

East Kalimantan has added more than 2,700 cases since Dec. 1, the highest month-to-date number outside Java, to take its total to 22,353.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/indonesia-daily-covid-deaths-rising-steadil