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JAKARTA: The number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia increased to 5,923 on Friday (April 17), said a senior health official, making it the worst affected country in Southeast Asia.
Indonesia reported a record 407 new cases, Achmad Yurianto, director general of the Ministry of Health for infectious diseases, said at a press conference.
Meanwhile, the death toll increased by 24 on Friday, bringing the total number to 520. The number of recovered patients increased by 59, for a total of 607.
The Philippines, which previously had the highest number of cases in the region, recorded 218 new cases on Friday, totaling 5,878.
Indonesia has seen a significant increase in the number of new cases in the past two weeks.
On April 5, Indonesia had less than 2,500 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Experts have attributed the increase to more aggressive testing.
Fewer than 10,000 tests were conducted on April 5, more than a month after Indonesia recorded its first two cases on March 2.
Since then, more than 30,000 additional tests have been performed.
Police officers distribute masks and hand sanitizers during the prevention of the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Depok, outside Jakarta, Indonesia, April 15, 2020. REUTERS / Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana
But the amount of testing Indonesia has carried out is still considered insufficient for a country with a population of 260 million, experts said.
Malaysia’s test rate is around 2,700 per million population, while Singapore’s test rate is over 12,000 per million population.
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Yurianto, who is also the spokesperson for the government’s pandemic workforce, said Indonesia is interested in improving its test rate and aims to conduct more than 10,000 tests a day.
“The president (Mr. Joko Widodo) has instructed that the tests be carried out on a massive scale and that contact tracing be carried out more aggressively,” he said at a press conference on Friday.
“Today, Indonesia has the capacity to analyze 17,900 samples (per day). We will continue to increase capacity,” he added. Sometimes more than one sample is required for each COVID-19 test.
Yurianto also said that 34 laboratories are now working to analyze samples taken from COVID-19 patients and suspects. In early March, there was only one in the entire country.
COVID-19 cases in Indonesia could exceed 100,000, said Professor Wiku Adisasmito, an expert on the government’s pandemic working group, on Thursday.
Indonesia has one of the highest COVID-19 death rates in the world, between 8% and 9%.
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