Workers in protective suits prepare to place a coffin containing the body of a COVID-19 victim in a grave at Sipenjo Cemetery in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Wednesday, July 14, 2021.
Indonesia on Wednesday reported more than 54,000 new coronavirus cases for the first time, surpassing recent daily infections in India, whose devastating outbreak is on the decline, and becoming Asia’s new virus hotspot.
Officials fear the more transmissible delta variant is now spreading from the islands of Java and Bali, where the outbreak prompted partial lockdowns that closed places of worship, malls, parks and restaurants.
“I think the outbreak will continue to increase in July because we are not yet able to stop the spread of the infection,” Pandu Riono, an epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia, said on Wednesday. “Emergency social restrictions are still insufficient. They must be twice as stringent as we are facing the delta version, which is twice more contagious.”
The health ministry on Wednesday reported 54,517 new cases and 991 deaths, raising the number of confirmed cases to over 2.6 million and the confirmed death toll exceeding 69,000.
A month ago the daily cases were running around 8,000.
Reported daily cases in Indonesia are now higher than in India, while Indonesia has far less testing by population.
India reported fewer than 39,000 cases on Wednesday, well below its peak of more than 400,000 daily cases in May, following a lockdown in its worst-hit areas and a phased vaccination campaign.
Indonesia’s Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the government had identified the spread of the delta variant in some areas outside Java and Bali.
He told lawmakers on Tuesday that across the country, more than 90,000 of the 120,000 hospital beds for COVID-19 patients are occupied.
“Nationally, we still have some space. But bed occupancy rates are very high in some provinces where the eruption of the delta variant is concentrated,” Sadikin said.
With deaths increasing over the past month, some residents near Jakarta have started helping gravediggers.
“Since the diggers are too tired and don’t have enough resources to dig, the residents of my neighborhood decided to help out,” said Jaya Abidin, who lives in Bogor, on the outskirts of the capital. “Because if we don’t, we’ll have to alternate long waits for funerals at midnight.”
The government is struggling to get enough vaccines to reach its goal of vaccinating more than 181 million of its 270 million people by March 2022. So far, only 15.6 million people have been fully vaccinated.
So far, the world’s fourth most populous country has received 137.6 million doses of Sinovac, AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines, enough for about 69 million people.
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