Indonesia reports highest rise in COVID-19 cases in more than 3 months

JAKARTA: Indonesia on Wednesday (Jun 9) reported 7,725 new coronavirus infections, the highest daily number since Feb 26, bringing the total number of cases to 1.87 million, data from the country’s COVID-19 taskforce showed.

The task force also reported 170 people died from COVID-19 on Wednesday, taking the total to 52,162.

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President Joko Widodo said Wednesday that the country aims to speed up COVID-19 vaccinations to reach 1 million shots a day by July.

Authorities also opened up inoculations to anyone aged over 18 in Jakarta to contain increased transmission in the capital.

READ: Indonesia aims to speed up vaccinations as Jakarta opens to over 18s

Health experts are worried about the risk of a new spike in infections fuelled by variants and a jump in travel last month as many in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country travelled back to hometowns for holidays after Ramadan.

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Jakarta has been one of the epicentres of the outbreak and Siti Nadia Tarmizi, a health ministry official, confirmed that vaccinations would now be opened up to anyone over 18.

In a separate statement on Wednesday, the health ministry said its data showed the COVID-19 transmission rate in the past week in Jakarta was still “pretty high”.

At least 11.43 million Indonesians have received two shots of a vaccine, either made by China’s Sinovac Biotech and Sinopharm, or AstraZeneca.

As of May 31, Indonesia had nearly 76 million doses of ready-to-use vaccines.

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