Indonesia sees highest single-day spike COVID-19 cases

By Nicky Aulia Widadio

JAKARTA (AA) - Indonesia announced 2,657 new COVID-19 cases, the biggest daily rise so far, taking the nationwide tally to 70,736.

West Java Province reported the highest surge in the last 24 hours with 962 cases, according to government spokesman for COVID-19 handling Achmad Yurianto.

“The significant increase in West Java comes from the Secapa [the Army’s Officer Candidate School] cluster. In total, we’ve recorded 1,262 confirmed cases from the cluster,” said Yurianto during daily press briefing.

Only 17 out of the 1,262 patients were under treatment at hospitals as they started to show symptoms of fever, cough, and shortness of breath.

Meanwhile, the rest shows no symptoms and currently quarantined at a military school in Bandung.

“Furthermore, East Java reported 517 new cases, followed by DKI Jakarta with 284 new cases and South Sulawesi with 130 new cases,” he revealed.

The number of recovered patients rose by 1,066, with total recoveries standing at 32,651.

“The death toll reached 3,417, with 58 new fatalities,” said Yurianto.

The Health Ministry has examined 23,832 specimen samples in the last 24 hours. Around 992,000 specimens have been examined since the first case reported in early March.

Indonesia is the worst affected country among the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, followed by the Philippines with 51,754 cases.

Philippines on Thursday reported 1,395 new infections of the virus with no new death. The country’s death toll remains at 1,314, while recoveries reached 12,813 with 225 additions.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the bloc has surpassed 180,000, while the fatalities neared 5,000.

* Writing by Maria Elisa Hospita from Anadolu Agency's Indonesian language service.