Heru Andriyanto, Jakarta – Indonesia recorded 221 coronavirus-related deaths on Sunday, the highest daily death toll since the outbreak began and 26 percent higher than the previous record.

Southeast Asia's biggest country is currently in the deadliest period of the outbreak, with daily death toll hitting three digits for the last 29 days. It's for the first time that more than 200 people have died from the virus in a 24-hour period.

The previous one-day high was 175 deaths reported on Dec. 11.

The country has now recorded a total of 19,880 deaths, or 3 percent of the overall cases. It has been averaging 147 deaths since the beginning of the month, equivalent to 2,935 Covid deaths month to date.

Today's record breaking death toll was mainly attributable to Central and East Java, which account for 60 percent of the nationwide Covid deaths.

Central Java reported 73 deaths to take its total to 2,843, the third-highest casualty toll in the Indonesian outbreak.

East Java registered 60 deaths for a total of 5,210, more than any other province.

Jakarta has recorded a total of 3,072 deaths, 19 more from the previous day.

Surging cases

A further 6,982 coronavirus cases have been recorded countrywide in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 664,930.

The total number of active cases stands at 103,239 or 15.5 percent of the overall confirmed cases.

The last time the country reported fewer new cases than the number of cured Covid patients in a day was on Nov. 30.

Jakarta, home to 24.5 percent of overall cases, added 1,592 new cases for a total of 163,111. Newly transmissions have been spiraling beyond control in the capital since mid-November.

The seven-day average in Jakarta has set new record for the last four days. It has added more than 26,000 cases since Dec. 1.

East Java, West Java and South Sulawesi are enduring the biggest surge in newly cases of the virus – the three have recorded more cases in the last 20 days than their previous monthly total.

East Java just ended a record-breaking run in weekly average that had lasted for 20 consecutive days.

It has added 13,391 cases month to date to take its total to 75,274. By comparison, the province recorded 9,418 cases during the whole month of November.

West Java retakes the third place of provinces with the most cases from Central Java due to a dramatic surge in newly cases that has started since early this month.

West Java currently has a total of 73,948 cases, an increase of 1,052 on its total a day earlier. The country's most populous province is only the second place after Jakarta where daily numbers average more than 1,000 this month.

South Sulawesi has beaten its own record for highest number of daily coronavirus cases three times this month to stay in the fifth place of worst-affected provinces after Central Java.

It has been averaging 255 cases since Dec. 1 to take the province's total to 25,763. Last month, South Sulawesi averaged just 77 cases.

East Kalimantan also saw an uptick in newly cases with an average of 223 cases month to date, bringing its total number of positive cases to 24,081.

At least three other provinces have been consistently reporting three-digit daily numbers in the past few weeks to emerge new hotspots, including Banten, Yogyakarta and Central Kalimantan.

Banten now has a total of 16,163 cases, just 13 shy of Bali's total number in the last spot of the top ten. Only a month ago, the two provinces were separated by around 1,600 cases.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/indonesia-reports-alltime-high-of-daily-covid-death