Record high of more than 57,000 new COVID-19 cases in Indonesia

JAKARTA: Indonesia on Tuesday (Feb 15) reported 57,049 new COVID-19 infections over a 24-hour period, the highest daily caseload since the pandemic began.

The country also recorded 134 deaths and 26,747 recoveries, bringing the number of active cases to more than 400,000 nationwide.

Indonesia has seen a rise in the number of confirmed cases, after the more transmissible Omicron variant was first detected in the Southeast Asian country in December.

In the month of January, a total of 90,650 people were infected with COVID-19, figures from the Indonesian Health Ministry showed. This week, Indonesia surpassed this number in just two days. There were 36,501 new cases recorded on Monday.

Subscribe to CNA’s Morning Brief

An automated curation of our top stories to start your day.

This service is not intended for persons residing in the E.U. By clicking subscribe, I agree to receive news updates and promotional material from Mediacorp and Mediacorp’s partners.

Loading

Tuesday’s figure was higher than the country’s previous record of 56,757 confirmed COVID-19 cases over a 24-hour period. The previous record was set on Jul 15, 2021 as the country battled the Delta variant.

The Indonesian government had earlier predicted that the number of COVID-19 infections would peak between mid February and early March, after which the number of daily cases would slowly decline.

“(The number of cases) could be three times as much as (when the Delta variant hit) if we are not careful,” Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan said during a press conference on Jan 31.

Mr Pandjaitan said the government is doing all it can to stop this from happening and advised people to stay at home and go outside only if necessary.

However, the government has decided not to impose the same level of activity restrictions as when Indonesia was hit with the Delta variant last year, citing the low number of deaths and hospitalisation recently.

Last year, Indonesia introduced curbs known as Community Activity Restrictions or (PPKM) which is divided into four levels with level 4 being the most stringent.

Today, much of Indonesia is under level 2 PPKM, with cities considered to be COVID-19 hotspots like Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Bali imposing level 3 PPKM. There is no city or regency under level 4 PPKM.