Heru Andriyanto, Jakarta – Coronavirus has killed 1,204 people in Indonesia in the first five days of the month, despite early indications that related death toll and new infections have reached a downturn.

A total of 31,202 people have died of coronavirus in Indonesia since the outbreak started, with January becoming the deadliest month with 7,860 deaths.

The seven-day average of coronavirus-related deaths has fallen to the lowest figure in the past week, but the number of deaths in the five-day period is 233 more when compared to the same period in January, according to the Jakarta Globe tally.

A further 11,749 new cases were recorded on Friday, bringing the total number of cases to 1,134,854, government figures show.

The country has added more than 56,500 cases since February 1. The total number of cases stands at 176,672 or 15.6 percent of overall confirmed cases.

Newly infections have been falling sharply in some provinces but the country's four most populous provinces continue to experience a surge in cases.

Daily numbers in Jakarta have been toping 3,300 for the eighth consecutive day, taking its total to 287,233.

West Java has never reported fewer than 2,000 cases in a day since January 24 and has recorded a total of 161,748 cases.

Central Java has added around 7,500 cases in the last five days for a total of 132,887.

New coronavirus cases are trending down in East Java, but it's still averaging 751 cases to take its total to 116,549.

The four provinces in Indonesia's most crowded island of Java make up 61.5 percent of the national tally.

Daily cases have been falling in Banten, West Sumatra and Riau since the start of the month, each averaging between 59 and 73 cases.

South Sulawesi also saw its daily count fall to around 290 from an average of 555 in January. The province has a total of 49,692 cases, the biggest Covid caseloads outside Java.

However, East Kalimantan is still experiencing exponential growth of coronavirus cases with an average of 648 cases month to date, taking its total to 44,454.

For the third time since the outbreak, Bali recorded over 500 cases on Friday, bringing the total number of cases in the resort island to 27,699. It has overtaken Banten and West Sumatra in the past week to move to the eighth place of worst-affected provinces.

Yogyakarta is the next province where new transmissions aren't slowing yet. The province in southern Java has recorded a total of 23,186 cases, in comparison to 13,340 cases a month ago.

The virus has killed more people in East Java than in other provinces, totaling 8,068 deaths as of Friday.

Central Java comes next with a total of 5,622 Covid deaths, followed by Jakarta (4,485), West Java (2,033) and East Kalimantan (1,046).

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/indonesia-reports-over-1200-covid-deaths-in-five-day