Indonesia overtakes Philippines with most Covid-19 cases in South East Asia

JAKARTA – Indonesia on Thursday (Oct 15) with 4,411 new coronavirus infections reported, The country has taken over Philippines as South-east Asia’s new pandemic hotspot.

The world’s fourth most populous nation’s recorded total of 349,160 with 12,268 deaths, also the highest in the South East Region.

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan announced that Jakarta will start a two-week transitional period in a bid to curb the spread of the virus after the infection rate slowed over the past two weeks.

Baswedan urged the people to practice discipline so that the chain of transmission remains under control.

The new measures being implemented by the country will allow non-essential business to work from offices with the use of half of its capacity while dine-in customers at restaurants will also be limited to 50% of it’s capacity.

Parks and museums will be allowed to reopen with strict hygiene protocol and obtaining data from visitor for contact tracing purposes.

AstraZeneca aims to provide the country with 100 million coronavirus vaccines next year after the Indonesia’s health ministry signed a letter of intent with the BioPharmaceutical Company.

Indonesia surpassed Singapore as the country with the most number of infections in the region on June 17 until the Philippines took over on August 8. The government has blamed the surge in cases on people’s lack of discipline in complying with the health protocols, such as wearing masks and social distancing.