DW visited a hospital in Jakarta as the country recorded the highest number of daily deaths in the world. Infections have just peaked at more than 50,000 cases a day. Experts fear the real figures may be even worse than the official count.
Indonesia reported more than 54,000 new coronavirus cases for the first time Wednesday, surpassing recent daily infections in India, whose disastrous outbreak is declining, and becoming Asia’s new virus hot spot.
Officials fear that the more highly transmissible Delta variant is now spreading from the islands of Java and Bali, where outbreaks prompted a partial lockdown that closed places of worship, malls, parks and restaurants.
“I predict the outbreak will increase continuously in July as we are not able yet to prevent the spread of infections,” epidemiology expert Pandu Riono of the University of Indonesia said Wednesday. “Emergency social restrictions are still inadequate. They should be twice as stringent since we are facing the Delta variant, which is two times more contagious.”
Indonesia’s Health Ministry reported 54,517 new cases and 991 deaths Wednesday, pushing its cumulative number of confirmed cases above 2.6 million and confirmed fatalities to more than 69,000.
